Home British & World English messenger

Definition of messenger in English:

messenger

noun

1A person who carries a message or is employed to carry messages.
- ‘After he was demobbed in 1946 the couple, who have no children, lived in London, where Ron was employed as a messenger by a national newspaper.’
- ‘Perhaps by then city staff will have reported on what they think the impact of this could be on the city economy - although finding a messenger to deliver the message may be difficult.’
- ‘In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh's messengers and diplomatic envoys carried with them the seal of the Pharaoh, production of which guaranteed the carrier free and unhindered passage throughout the region.’
- ‘But the really amazing thing is that so many others in the free world not only do not agree but loathe and detest this message and its messengers.’
- ‘Notwithstanding the authority of the messenger, the message deserves examination on its own terms.’
- ‘Some of us just refuse to react, blaming the messengers for their message and accusing the scientists of scaremongering.’
- ‘Agni was the next and was important in the sacrifices and was considered as a messenger, carrying the messages to the heavens, as the flames of the sacrificial fires ascended upwards.’
- ‘Margaret joined West Middlesex Hospital at the tender age of 15, employed as a messenger on just £2.50 for a 43-hour week.’
- ‘Manto is only a messenger, she is carrying out duties laid out by government.’
- ‘They had a very hierarchical structure but operated with extremely slow communications, such as notes carried by messengers and face-to-face meetings.’
- ‘They had spent a great deal of time copying the letters that would be carried by messengers to the various leaders of the Elders around the world.’
- ‘It was generally a servant's task to take messages from the messengers.’
- ‘He was employed as a foot messenger, so he was on the subway frequently and took advantage of it, doing motion tags.’
- ‘Indeed, what will decide this election in the next three weeks is whether Americans are voting on the message or the messenger.’
- ‘Negotiations about the precise wording of the speech are intense, with messages and messengers traversing the strait on a near-daily basis.’
- ‘Eve's action was based on the hearing of an evil message from an evil messenger.’
- ‘Changing perceptions requires powerful combinations of messages, messengers and media.’
- ‘If no traders could be found, special messengers had to be employed for the task.’
- ‘All members can be alerted to urgent messages by messengers or via the party whips.’
- ‘Unable to disprove an unpalatable message, the messenger has been shot.’
message-bearer, message-carrier, postman, courier, errand boy, errand girl, runner, dispatch rider, envoy, emissary, agent, go-between, legate, nuncio, herald, harbinger
View synonyms
1. 1.1Biochemistry A substance that conveys information or a stimulus within the body.
  ‘nitric oxide is an intercellular messenger’
  ‘RNA is the messenger molecule that takes information from DNA and uses it to make proteins.’
  ‘‘Some plasticizers can mimic the effects of certain hormones - they're chemical messengers in the body,’ she says.’
  ‘As the body's chemical messengers, hormones transfer information and instructions from one set of cells to another.’
  ‘The afternoon slump, when eyelids droop and shoulders sag, is the result of a complicated dance of the body's chemical messengers.’
  ‘It translates genetic information from messenger ribonucleic acid and makes protein accordingly.’

verb

[with object]

Send (a document or package) by messenger.
‘could you have it messengered over to me?’
- ‘Would you like us to have it messengered to you or would you come in and pick it up yourself?’
- ‘But Jandd's massive Gabriel messenger bag is closer to the size most hard-working street urchins on wheels actually use for messengering, and it's definitely up to the task.’
- ‘One day I received by messenger a dirty and smudged envelope with no return address.’
- ‘He swore that my parents would be messengered a letter saying I had been accepted to an exclusive school.’
- ‘This speech does not report the movement of the betrothal message, from kingly words recounted, to messenger, to scroll, to herald's voice.’
- ‘But I think, as circumstance would have it, she was anticipating, I think, a script to be messengered, and there was a buzz at her door.’
- ‘Arnaz phones the night club, has Stack paged and asks him to go home and read some scripts that are being messengered to his doorstep.’
- ‘If that's the case, Perle can messenger or e-mail the transcripts to me, and I'll get them posted on the Web overnight.’
- ‘Knowing I was ill she messengered me over some echinacea and zinc and ginger tea.’

Phrases

shoot (or kill) the messenger

Treat the bearer of bad news as if they were to blame for it.
‘I was only reporting—no point in shooting the messenger’
- ‘If it were not for the Press, this situation could have continued indefinitely - so please don't shoot the messenger.’
- ‘When people don't believe bad news, or don't want to believe it can affect them, the tendency is to shoot the messenger.’
- ‘It was much like a potentate of yore shooting the messenger carrying bad news.’
- ‘We know that many people have an unfortunate tendency to kill the messenger who bears bad news, and sometimes it is necessary to take this tendency into account.’
- ‘It is indeed a sorry state of affairs when Irish politicians resort to shooting the messenger when election results are not to their liking.’
- ‘If only such people could focus their energies on the real issues in society, rather than insisting on shooting the messenger.’
- ‘The truth hurts, but that's no excuse for trying to shoot the messenger.’
- ‘There is no time to be wasted by shooting the messenger of bad news.’
- ‘The British public can't allow the Labour Party to shoot the messenger of such important news.’
- ‘Calling them names for doing so is like shooting the messenger who brings bad news.’