bearer

Etymology

bear +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛəɹə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɛəɹə(ɹ)

Noun

bearer (plural bearers)

1. One who, or that which, bears, sustains, or carries.
   • Bible, 2 Chron. ii. 18

     Bearers of burdens.

   • Dryden

     The bearer of unhappy news.

2. Someone who helps carry the coffin or a dead body during a funeral procession; pallbearer.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

3. One who possesses a cheque, bond, or other notes promising payment.

   I promise to pay the bearer on demand.

4. (India, dated) A domestic servant or palanquin carrier.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘Watches of the Night’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio 2005, p. 60:

     The bar of the watch-guard worked through the buttonhole, and the watch—Platte's watch—slid quietly on to the carpet; where the bearer found it next morning and kept it.

5. A tree or plant yielding fruit.

   a good bearer

6. (printing) A strip of reglet or other furniture to bear off the impression from a blank page.
7. (printing) A type or type-high piece of metal interspersed in blank parts to support the plate when it is shaved.

Anagrams

• rebear

Verb

beārer

1. first-person singular imperfect passive subjunctive of beō