carrier

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun One that transports or conveys.
• noun One, such as a person, business, or organization, that deals in the transport of passengers or goods.
• noun A mechanism or device by which something is conveyed or conducted.
• noun Medicine A person or animal that shows no symptoms of a disease but harbors the infectious agent of that disease and is capable of transmitting it to others.
• noun Genetics An individual that carries one gene for a particular recessive trait. A carrier does not express the trait but, when mated with another carrier, can produce offspring that do.
• noun Physics A boson, especially a gauge boson, that conveys a force or mediates an interaction between subatomic particles.
• noun A carrier wave.
• noun A charge-carrying entity, especially an electron or a hole in a semiconductor.
• noun An aircraft carrier.
• noun An insurance or underwriting organization.
• noun A telecommunications company.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun One who or that which carries or conveys.
• noun Specifically
• noun One who for hire undertakes the conveyance of goods or persons.
• noun A carrier-pigeon.
• noun One who manages or arranges affairs.
• noun In machinery: A piece of iron fixed by a setscrew on the end of a shaft or spindle to be turned in a lathe, or to a mandrel on which a round object is driven for the purpose of being turned; a lathe-dog. A projection in the center-chuck or face-plate drives the carrier around.
• noun The distributing-roller of a carding-machine.
• noun A roller between the drum and the feeding-rollers of a scribbling-machine, for spinning wool.
• noun In a braiding-machine, a spool- or bobbin-holder which follows in a curved path intersecting the paths of other bobbins, and so lays up the thread into a braid.
• noun A hoist, as the mold-carrier in sugar-works.
• noun (f ) Part of the breech-action of a magazine-gun. See carrier-ring.
• noun An oyster that will bear transportation well.
• An old spelling of career.
• noun In transportation, a system of endless traveling-chains supporting slats, trays, or buckets, used in transporting various materials or articles in bulk or in packages over short distances, as in a factory.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun One who, or that which, carries or conveys; a messenger.
• noun One who is employed, or makes it his business, to carry goods for others for hire; a porter; a teamster.
• noun (Mach.) That which drives or carries; as: (a) A piece which communicates to an object in a lathe the motion of the face plate; a lathe dog. (b) A spool holder or bobbin holder in a braiding machine. (c) A movable piece in magazine guns which transfers the cartridge to a position from which it can be thrust into the barrel.
• noun (Zoöl.) a variety of the domestic pigeon used to convey letters from a distant point to to its home.
• noun (Zoöl.) a univalve shell of the genus Phorus; -- so called because it fastens bits of stones and broken shells to its own shell, to such an extent as almost to conceal it.
• noun (Law.) See under Common, a.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A person or object that carries someone or something else.
• noun A carrier pigeon, a newspaperese term (misnomer) for a homing pigeon, racing pigeon, racing homer, homer.
• noun An Old English carrier pigeon or Old English carrier (the "King of the Doos").
• noun A person or company in the business of shipping freight.
• noun A person or animal that transmits a disease to others without itself contracting the disease.
• noun A signal such as radio, sound, or light that is modulated to transmit information.
• noun A mobile network operator; wireless carrier.
• noun An inert material added to an active ingredient to aid in the application and/or the effectiveness of active ingredient.
• noun A certified airline.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a self-propelled wheeled vehicle designed specifically to carry something
• noun a boy who delivers newspapers
• noun a radio wave that can be modulated in order to transmit a signal
• noun (medicine) a person (or animal) who has some pathogen to which he is immune but who can pass it on to others
• noun someone whose employment involves carrying something
• noun a large warship that carries planes and has a long flat deck for takeoffs and landings
• noun a rack attached to a vehicle; for carrying luggage or skis or the like
• noun an inactive substance that is a vehicle for a radioactive tracer of the same substance and that assists in its recovery after some chemical reaction
• noun a man who delivers the mail