Car"ri*er (?), n. [From Carry.]
1.
One who, or that which, carries or conveys; a messenger.
The air which is but . . . a carrier of the sounds.
Bacon.
2.
One who is employed, or makes it his business, to carry goods for others for hire; a porter; a teamster.
The roads are crowded with carriers, laden with rich manufactures.
Swift.
3. 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.
Carrier pigeon Zool., a variety of the domestic pigeon used to convey letters from a distant point to to its home. -- Carrier shell Zool., 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. -- Common carrier Law. See under Common, a.
© Webster 1913.