1. A person or firm in the business of transporting people or goods or messages
   "The airline operates as a common carrier, offering services to the general public";
   - common carrier
    
2. Someone whose employment involves carrying something
   "the bonds were transmitted by carrier";
   - bearer, toter
    
3. A person who delivers the mail
   "The neighbourhood children eagerly awaited the mail carrier's arrival";
   - mail carrier [N. Amer], letter carrier [N. Amer], postman, postie [Brit, informal]
    
4. A boy who delivers newspapers
   "The carrier woke up early every morning to deliver papers on his route";
   - newsboy [archaic]
    
5. A self-propelled wheeled vehicle designed specifically to carry something
   "refrigerated carriers have revolutionized the grocery business"
    
6. A large warship that carries planes and has a long flat deck for takeoffs and landings
   "The aircraft carrier launched fighter jets for the mission"; "The attack aircraft carrier launched fighter jets for the mission";
   - aircraft carrier, flattop [US, informal], attack aircraft carrier
    
7. A rack attached to a vehicle; for carrying luggage, skis or the like
   "They secured their bicycles to the car's roof carrier"
    
8. 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
   "The researchers used a carrier to track the movement of the radioactive isotope through the system"
    
9. A radio wave that can be modulated in order to transmit a signal
   "The information was encoded onto the carrier wave";
   - carrier wave
    
10. (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
    "She was a carrier of the gene for colour blindness"
     
11. (medicine) a person (or animal) who has some pathogen to which they are immune but who can pass it on to others
    "The immune carrier unknowingly spread the disease to his colleagues";
    - immune carrier

Derived forms: carriers

Type of: being, boy, business, business concern, business organisation [Brit], business organization, chemical, chemical substance, combat ship, concern, deliverer, delivery boy, immune, male child, organism, rack, radio emission, radio radiation, radio wave, self-propelled vehicle, stand, transmitter, traveler [US], traveller [Brit, Cdn], vector, war vessel, warship

Encyclopedia: Carrier, Oklahoma