/mes"euhn jeuhr/ , n.
1. a person who carries a message or goes on an errand for another, esp. 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. Naut.
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. Oceanog. a brass weight sent down a line to actuate a Nansen bottle or other oceanographic instrument.
5. Archaic. a herald, forerunner, or harbinger.
v.t.
6. to send by messenger.
[ 1175-1225; ME messager, messangere messagier. See MESSAGE, -ER 2 ]
Syn. 1. bearer, courier.