carrier
part of speech
noun (a carrier, carriers)
meaning for a pupil
1) A carrier is a person, animal, vehicle or company that carries or delivers things or people: a mail carrier, an aircraft carrier. tree →
2) A carrier is a bag, box or holder for carrying something: a pet carrier, a carrier bag. tree →
3) A carrier of a disease has the germs and can pass them to others, sometimes without being ill. tree →
4) A carrier is a company that gives mobile phone service or flies planes (an airline). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and health lessons, mosquitoes are carriers of diseases like malaria; washing hands stops germs spreading. In geography and history, aircraft carriers are huge ships that planes take off from. In everyday life: «carrier bag» (UK) for shopping, «mail carrier» (US) for the person who brings letters, a cat carrier for the vet. Phrases: «carrier bag», «pet carrier», «aircraft carrier», «mail carrier», «baby carrier».
examples
- The mail carrier brought a parcel. tree →
- We took the cat to the vet in a carrier. tree →
- Mosquitoes can be carriers of disease. tree →
- The aircraft carrier was as long as three football fields. tree →
- Can I have a carrier bag, please? tree →
- Pigeons were once used as message carriers. tree →
- Dad carries the baby in a baby carrier. tree →
- Which carrier does your phone use? tree →
note
Countable. From «carry» + -er (y → i): carrier. «Carrier pigeon» is a pigeon trained to carry messages. In the UK, «carrier bag» is a plastic or paper shopping bag.
In the corpora
- Holly-Mae's friend Jodie brings a jumper in a carrier bag.
- Many UK shops charge for carrier bags so people use fewer and make less plastic rubbish.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «carrier» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.