mes·sen·ger

[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.
2.
a person employed to convey official dispatches or to go on other official or special errands: a bank messenger.
3.
Nautical.
a.
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.
b.
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.
00:10
Messenger is one of our favorite verbs.
So is hornswoggle. Does it mean:
to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.
to flee; abscond:

Origin:
1175–1225; Middle English messager, messangere < Anglo-French; Old French messagier. See message, -er2


1. bearer, courier.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
messenger (ˈmɛsɪndʒə) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
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
 a.  a light line used to haul in a heavy rope
 b.  an endless belt of chain, rope, or cable, used on a powered winch to take off power
5.  archaic a herald
 
[C13: from Old French messagier, from message]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

messenger
early 13c., messager, from O.Fr. messagier, from message (see message). With parasitic -n- inserted by c.1300 for no apparent reason except that people liked to say it that way (cf. passenger, harbinger, scavenger).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Easton
Bible Dictionary

Messenger definition


(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).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Example sentences
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.
But the messenger resembled a friendly alien possessed of uncanny intuitive
  gifts that seemed normal only to him.
The survivors released a messenger buoy and smoke bombs and waited, hoping
  desperately that someone would see them.
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