carrier
Other forms: carriers
In medicine, a person is a carrier if they test positive for a pathogen or a genetic defect without showing any symptoms. This person can unwittingly spread the illness to others without ever knowing he or she is the source.
If your job involves carrying things or people, you work as a carrier. If you deliver newspapers, you are a newspaper carrier. If the job is to transport household items or people, your business is as a common carrier, such as a moving company or an airline. But if you deliver aircraft, you are not an aircraft carrier — that would be a large, flat-decked, military ship where planes can land or take off at sea.
Definitions of carrier
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a person or firm in the business of transporting people or goods or messages
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synonyms:
common carrier
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types:
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line
a commercial organization serving as a common carrier
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airline, airline business, airway
a commercial enterprise that provides scheduled flights for passengers
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railroad, railroad line, railway, railway line, railway system
line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a system of transportation for trains that pull passengers or freight
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steamship company, steamship line
a line responsible for the operation of a fleet of steamships
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transit line
a line providing public transit
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type of:
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business, business concern, business organisation, business organization, concern
a commercial or industrial enterprise and the people who constitute it
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someone whose employment involves carrying something
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a man who delivers the mail
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synonyms:
letter carrier, mail carrier, mailman, postman
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type of:
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deliverer, delivery boy, deliveryman
someone employed to make deliveries
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deliverer, delivery boy, deliveryman
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a boy who delivers newspapers
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synonyms:
newsboy
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type of:
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deliverer, delivery boy, deliveryman
someone employed to make deliveries
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deliverer, delivery boy, deliveryman
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a large warship that carries planes and has a long flat deck for takeoffs and landings
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synonyms:
aircraft carrier, attack aircraft carrier, flattop
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type of:
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combat ship, war vessel, warship
a government ship that is available for waging war
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combat ship, war vessel, warship
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a self-propelled wheeled vehicle designed specifically to carry something“refrigerated carriers have revolutionized the grocery business”
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type of:
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self-propelled vehicle
a wheeled vehicle that carries in itself a means of propulsion
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self-propelled vehicle
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a rack attached to a vehicle; for carrying luggage or skis or the like
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types:
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bomb rack
a device on an aircraft for carrying bombs
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luggage carrier
carrier (as behind a bicycle seat) for luggage
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luggage rack, roof rack
carrier for holding luggage above the seats of a train or on top of a car
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ski rack
a carrier for holding skis on top of a vehicle
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type of:
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rack
framework for holding objects
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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
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type of:
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chemical, chemical substance
material produced by or used in a reaction involving changes in atoms or molecules
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chemical, chemical substance
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(genetics) an organism that possesses a recessive gene whose effect is masked by a dominant allele; the associated trait is not apparent but can be passed on to offspring
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(medicine) a person (or animal) who has some pathogen to which he is immune but who can pass it on to others
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synonyms:
immune carrier
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examples:
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Typhoid Mary
United States cook who was an immune carrier of typhoid fever and who infected dozens of people (1870-1938)
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type of:
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transmitter, vector
any agent (person or animal or microorganism) that carries and transmits a disease
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immune
a person who is immune to a particular infection
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Typhoid Mary
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a radio wave that can be modulated in order to transmit a signal
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synonyms:
carrier wave
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type of:
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radio emission, radio radiation, radio wave
an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength between 0.5 cm to 30,000 m
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radio emission, radio radiation, radio wave
Pronunciation
US
/ˈkɛriər/
UK
/ˈkæriə/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘carrier'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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