BEARER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bearer mean? 

• BEARER (noun)
  The noun BEARER has 4 senses:

1. someone whose employment involves carrying something

2. a messenger who bears or presents

3. one of the mourners carrying the coffin at a funeral

4. the person who is in possession of a check or note or bond or document of title that is endorsed to him or to whoever holds it

  Familiarity information: BEARER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEARER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone whose employment involves carrying something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bearer; carrier; toter

Context example:

the bonds were transmitted by carrier

Hypernyms ("bearer" is a kind of...):

traveler; traveller (a person who changes location)

Derivation:

bear (move while holding up or supporting)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A messenger who bears or presents

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

a bearer of good tidings

Hypernyms ("bearer" is a kind of...):

courier; messenger (a person who carries a message)

Derivation:

bear (move while holding up or supporting)

Sense 3

Meaning:

One of the mourners carrying the coffin at a funeral

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bearer; pallbearer

Hypernyms ("bearer" is a kind of...):

griever; lamenter; mourner; sorrower (a person who is feeling grief (as grieving over someone who has died))

Derivation:

bear (move while holding up or supporting)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The person who is in possession of a check or note or bond or document of title that is endorsed to him or to whoever holds it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bearer; holder

Context example:

the bond was marked 'payable to bearer'

Hypernyms ("bearer" is a kind of...):

capitalist (a person who invests capital in a business (especially a large business))

Derivation:

bear (have rightfully; of rights, titles, and offices)

 Context examples 

The authority in Holmes’s voice had its effect upon the bearers.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The woman was satisfied with this; but the king’s armour-bearer, who had heard all, was friendly with the young lord, and informed him of the whole plot.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“Here, worthy sir,” answered the first of the bearers, laying a great package down in the corner.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Most eclipses are mixed in outlook, but for most, this one will be the bearer of exciting news.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Mr. Dick would not have relinquished his post of candle-bearer to anyone alive.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The solemn procession, headed by Baddeley, of tea-board, urn, and cake-bearers, made its appearance, and delivered her from a grievous imprisonment of body and mind.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Although in one instance the bearers of not good tidings, Mr. and Mrs. Weston's visit this morning was in another respect particularly opportune.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Dear, dear Catherine, in being the bearer of such a message, I seem guilty myself of all its insult; yet, I trust you will acquit me, for you must have been long enough in this house to see that I am but a nominal mistress of it, that my real power is nothing.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

—whipped out a key, went in, and presently came back with the matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on Coutts’s, drawn payable to bearer and signed with a name that I can’t mention, though it’s one of the points of my story, but it was a name at least very well known and often printed.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The people, who had often heard of me, were very curious to crowd about the sedan, and the girl was complaisant enough to make the bearers stop, and to take me in her hand, that I might be more conveniently seen.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)