common carrier

American  

noun

1. Transportation. (in federal regulatory and other legal usage) a carrier offering its services at published rates to all persons for interstate transportation.

2. a public service or public utility company, as a telephone or telegraph company, engaged in the transmitting of messages for the public.

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common carrier British  

noun

1. a person or firm engaged in the business of transporting goods or passengers

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common carrier Cultural  

1. A company or individual providing public transportation on a regular basis in return for a fee that is uniformly charged to all users.

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Other Word Forms

• common carriage noun
• common-carrier adjective

Example Sentences

That was the only thing Jeanine had consumed, and it was a common carrier of Cronobacter.

From New York Times • Sep. 6, 2022

We cannot stress this enough: No, an Ohio judge did not declare Google a common carrier this week.

From Washington Post • May 26, 2022

These corporations “are not engaged in indiscriminate, neutral transmission of any and all users’ speech” like a common carrier.

From Slate • May 12, 2022

Florida and Texas are both, to some extent, relying on the common carrier argument.

From The Verge • Dec. 16, 2021

Since I’ve been here I’ve become everything—carpenter, painter, decorator, gardener, mason, bee expert, poultry-keeper, blacksmith, livery-stables, furniture-remover, house agent, common carrier, bricklayer, dairyman, horse-breaker.

From The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett by MacKenzie, Compton