messenger

American  

[mes-uhn-jer] / ˈmɛs ən dʒər /

noun

1. a person who carries a message or goes on an errand for another, especially as a matter of duty or business.

   Synonyms:

   courier, bearer

2. a person employed to convey official dispatches or to go on other official or special errands.

   a bank messenger.

3. Nautical.

   1. a rope or chain made into an endless belt to pull on an anchor cable or to drive machinery from some power source, as a capstan or winch.

   2. a light line by which a heavier line, as a hawser, can be pulled across a gap between a ship and a pier, a buoy, another ship, etc.

4. Oceanography. a brass weight sent down a line to actuate a Nansen bottle or other oceanographic instrument.

5. Archaic. a herald, forerunner, or harbinger.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to send by messenger.

messenger British  

/ ˈmɛsɪndʒə /

noun

1. a person who takes messages from one person or group to another or others

2. a person who runs errands or is employed to run errands

3. a carrier of official dispatches; courier

4. nautical

   1. a light line used to haul in a heavy rope

   2. an endless belt of chain, rope, or cable, used on a powered winch to take off power

5. archaic a herald

---

Etymology

Origin of messenger

1175–1225; Middle English messager, messangere < Anglo-French; Old French messagier. See message, -er ²

Example Sentences

An mRNA vaccine uses messenger RNA to get your cells to make a piece of a virus that is harmless.

From The Wall Street Journal

Birds are the last faithful messengers of the wild world that continue to turn up in cities, suburbs, woodlots and farms, but they do so at their peril.

From The Wall Street Journal

And could the effect of these be boosted by doses of the chemical messenger oxytocin, a neuropeptide that helps affectionate interactions make us feel better physically and emotionally?

From The Wall Street Journal

"This understandably created distrust both of the message and the messengers," she said.

From BBC

They then used the technique to stimulate mouse neurons and captured the moment when synaptic vesicles fused with the cell membrane and released their chemical messengers.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• courier
• emissary
• go-between
• mediator
• prophet