bearers

Noun

bearer (plural bearers)

1. One who, or that which, bears, sustains, or carries.
   • And he [Solomon] set threescore and ten thousand of them [the foreigners living in Israel] to be bearers of burdens,1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Chronicles 2:18

   Synonyms:

   carrier, -phore

2. Someone who helps carry the coffin or a dead body during a funeral procession.
   • Nay, quoth he, on his swooning bed outstretch’d,
     If I may not carry, sure Ile ne’re be fetch’d,
     But vow though the cross Doctors all stood hearers,
     For one Carrier put down to make six bearers.1645, John Milton, “Another on the same”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, London: Humphrey Moseley, page 29

   Synonyms:

   pallbearer

3. One who possesses a cheque, bond, or other notes promising payment.
   • I promise to pay the bearer on demand.
4. A person employed or engaged to carry equipment on a safari, expedition, etc.
5. A person employed to carry a palanquin or litter.
   • Within an hour of our finally deciding to start five litters were brought up to the door of the cave, each accompanied by four regular bearers and two spare hands, also a band of about fifty armed Amahagger, who were to form the escort and carry the baggage.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
6. (India, dated) A domestic servant in charge of household goods and clothing; a valet.
   • 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.1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Watches of the Night”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 60

   Synonyms:

   dressing-boy

See all 12 meanings of bearer