The Collaborative International Dictionary
Carrier \Car"ri*er\, n. [From Carry.]
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One who, or that which, carries or conveys; a messenger.
The air which is but . . . a carrier of the sounds.
--Bacon. -
One who is employed, or makes it his business, to carry goods for others for hire; a porter; a teamster.
The roads are crowded with carriers, laden with rich manufactures.
--Swift. -
(Mach.) That which drives or carries; as:
A piece which communicates to an object in a lathe the motion of the face plate; a lathe dog.
A spool holder or bobbin holder in a braiding machine.
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A movable piece in magazine guns which transfers the cartridge to a position from which it can be thrust into the barrel.
Carrier pigeon (Zo["o]l.), a variety of the domestic pigeon used to convey letters from a distant point to to its home.
Carrier shell (Zo["o]l.), a univalve shell of the genus Phorus; -- so called because it fastens bits of stones and broken shells to its own shell, to such an extent as almost to conceal it.
Common carrier (Law.) See under Common, a.
Wiktionary
n. Any marine snail of the family ''(taxlink Xenophoridae family noshow=1)'', which cements stones and shell fragments to its own shell.
Usage examples of "carrier shell".
The next day at the very early hour of four on a bright, crisp fall morning in early November, Lance and Peter waited by the new passenger carrier shell that General John Greene had had constructed for the purpose of kinetic transportation.