receiver
[ri-see-ver]
- a person or thing that receives.
- a device or apparatus that receives electrical signals, waves, or the like, and renders them perceptible to the senses, as the part of a telephone held to the ear, a radio receiving set, or a television receiving set.
- Law. a person appointed by a court to manage the affairs of a bankrupt business or person or to care for property in litigation.
- Commerce. a person appointed to receive money due.
- a person who knowingly receives stolen goods for an illegal purpose; a dealer in stolen merchandise.
- a device or apparatus for receiving or holding something; receptacle; container.
- (in a firearm) the basic metal unit housing the action and to which the barrel and other components are attached.
- Chemistry. a vessel for collecting and containing a distillate.
- Football. a player on the offensive team who catches, is eligible to catch, or is noted for the ability to catch a forward pass: Jones was the receiver of the first pass thrown. He sent all his receivers downfield.
- Baseball. the catcher.
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Origin of receiver
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for receiver
Contemporary Examples
After everything is in order and the call has been placed, Hitch picks up the receiver and says “How do you do?”
The receiver is the only part of the gun that can be legally controlled and must be serialized if 100 percent complete.
The sender and receiver pay the driver a few hryvnia—the Ukrainian currency—on either end.
“You are destroying the university,” he shouted into the receiver.
Brooks: [Snatching up the receiver as the phone rings] This is Mel Brooks.
Historical Examples
The impact of sounds on his ear from the receiver set him to attention.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
He went to the desk where the telephone was, and took up the receiver.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
What would I not have given to have been the receiver of such a letter?
She stood there looking at the receiver as her hands came together.
DustMr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
The clumsy framework of the receiver was reduced to a neat and portable size.
Heroes of the TelegraphJ. Munro
receiver
- a person who receives something; recipient
- a person appointed by a court to manage property pending the outcome of litigation, during the infancy of the owner, or after the owner(s) has been declared bankrupt or of unsound mind
- mainly British a person who receives stolen goods knowing that they have been stolen
- the equipment in a telephone, radio, or television that receives incoming electrical signals or modulated radio waves and converts them into the original audio or video signals
- the part of a telephone containing the earpiece and mouthpiece that is held by the telephone user
- the equipment in a radar system, radio telescope, etc, that converts incoming radio signals into a useful form, usually displayed on the screen of a cathode-ray oscilloscope
- an obsolete word for receptacle
- chem a vessel in which the distillate is collected during distillation
- US sport a player whose function is to receive the ball, esp a footballer who catches long passes
- the metallic frame situated behind the breech of a gun to guide the round into the chamber
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for receiver
n.
mid-14c. (mid-13c. as a surname), agent noun from receive, or from Old French recevere (Modern French receveur), agent noun from recievere. As a telephone apparatus, from 1877; in reference to a radio unit, from 1891; in U.S. football sense, from 1897.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
receiver
[rĭ-sē′vər]
- A device, as in a radio or telephone, that converts incoming radio, microwave, or electrical signals to a form, such as sound or light, that can be perceived by humans. Compare transmitter.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.