Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Messenger

Mes′sen·ger, n. [OE. messager, OF. messagier, F. messager. See Message.] 1. One who bears a message; the bearer of a verbal or written communication, notice, or invitation, from one person to another, or to a public body; specifically, an office servant who bears messages.

2. One who, or that which, foreshows, or foretells.

Yon gray lines That fret the clouds are messengers of day. Shak.

3. (Naut.) A hawser passed round the capstan, and having its two ends lashed together to form an endless rope or chain; — formerly used for heaving in the cable.

4. (Law) A person appointed to perform certain ministerial duties under bankrupt and insolvent laws, such as to take charge of the estate of the bankrupt or insolvent. Bouvier. Tomlins.

Syn. — Carrier; intelligencer; courier; harbinger; forerunner; precursor; herald.

Messenger bird, the secretary bird, from its swiftness.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.