messenger

[mes-uh n-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.
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)
6.
to send by messenger.
Origin
1175-1225; Middle English messager, messangere < Anglo-French; Old French messagier. See message, -er2
Synonyms
1. bearer, courier.
Examples from the web for messenger
  • messenger has already revealed plenty of tantalising information.
  • One of its jobs is to act as a messenger carrying genetic information from a cell's nucleus to the machinery which makes proteins.
  • Demonize and dehumanize the messenger, the message will become forgotten.
  • He had been looking for someone who knew the university and could act as a confidante and a messenger.
  • They are apt to punish the messenger, not the miscreants.
  • Faculty often have no idea at all how universities actually make important decisions and tend to blame the messenger.
  • In an ideal world students will realize that it is the message they should be paying attention to and not the messenger.
  • In many cases, blaming administrators amounts to shooting the messenger.
  • The war was quickening other changes in the country, as suggested by that telegraphic messenger.
  • Roemer is an imperfect messenger to highlight the imperfections of the primary process.
British Dictionary definitions for 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 Origin
C13: from Old French messagier, from message
Word Origin and History for messenger
n.

c.1200, messager, from Old French messagier "messenger, envoy, ambassador," from message (see message (n.)). With parasitic -n- inserted by c.1300 for no apparent reason except that people liked to say it that way (cf. passenger, harbinger, scavenger).

messenger in the Bible

(Heb. mal'ak, Gr. angelos), an angel, a messenger who runs on foot, the bearer of despatches (Job 1:14; 1 Sam. 11:7; 2 Chr. 36:22); swift of foot (2 Kings 9:18).