messenger

[ mes-uhn-jer ]

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

/ 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of messenger¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of messenger¹

C13: from Old French messagier, from message

Example Sentences

Sure, the tiny vessel is an ark of sorts, but for singles only, and with no old man to play God’s messenger.

From Los Angeles Times

At this connection, messenger molecules in the form of neurotransmitters facilitate communication, eventually triggering the formation and storage of memory down the line.

From Science Daily

What matters to them is whether a candidate reflects their values and seems “a good fit for the community ... In many ways, the message is the messenger.”

From Los Angeles Times

Interleukin 38 is a small messenger protein that ensures communication between cells.

From Science Daily

Anzorov made an initial note on his telephone that read: “A teacher has shown his class a picture of the messenger of Allah naked.”

From BBC

Related Words

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