Runner

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: run=ner

CIDE DICTIONARY

Runner, n. [From Run.].

•  One who, or that which, runs; a racer.  [1913 Webster]
•  A detective.  Dickens.  [1913 Webster]
•  A messenger.  Swift.  [1913 Webster]
•  A smuggler.  R. North.  [1913 Webster]
•  One employed to solicit patronage, as for a steamboat, hotel, shop, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  A slender trailing branch which takes root at the joints or end and there forms new plants, as in the strawberry and the common cinquefoil.  [1913 Webster]
•  The rotating stone of a set of millstones.  [1913 Webster]
•  A rope rove through a block and used to increase the mechanical power of a tackle.  Totten.  [1913 Webster]
•  One of the pieces on which a sled or sleigh slides; also the part or blade of a skate which slides on the ice.  [1913 Webster]
•  A horizontal channel in a mold, through which the metal flows to the cavity formed by the pattern; also, the waste metal left in such a channel.  [1913 Webster]
•  The movable piece to which the ribs of an umbrella are attached.  [1913 Webster]
•  A food fish (Elagatis pinnulatus) of Florida and the West Indies; -- called also skipjack, shoemaker, and yellowtail. The name alludes to its rapid successive leaps from the water.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any cursorial bird.  [1913 Webster]
•  A movable slab or rubber used in grinding or polishing a surface of stone.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Runner, n.
1 a person who runs, esp. in a race.
2 a a creeping plant-stem that can take root. b a twining plant.
3 a rod or groove or blade on which a thing slides.
4 a sliding ring on a rod etc.
5 a messenger, scout, collector, or agent for a bank etc.; a tout.
6 hist. a police officer.
7 a running bird.
8 a a smuggler. b = blockade-runner.
9 a revolving millstone.
10 Naut. a rope in a single block with one end round a tackle-block and the other having a hook.
11 (in full runner bean) Brit. a twining bean plant, Phaseolus multiflorus, with red flowers and long green seed pods. Also called scarlet runner.
12 each of the long pieces on the underside of a sledge etc. that forms the contact in sliding.
13 a roller for moving a heavy article.
14 a long narrow ornamental cloth or rug.

Idiom

do a runner sl. leave hastily; flee. runner-up (pl. runners-up or runner-ups) the competitor or team taking second place.

THESAURUS

Runner

Hermes, Iris, Jehu, Mercury, Paul Revere, Pheidippides, Skimobile, Sno-Cat, agent, appendage, arm, bine, blade, bough, branch, branchedness, branchiness, burgeon, carrier, commissionaire, conductor, contrabandist, courier, creeper, deadwood, diplomatic courier, driver, emissary, engineer, estafette, express, flagellum, flier, fork, frond, functionary, gate, go-between, goer, gofer, gunrunner, hand, handler, hell-driver, horse racer, hummer, hurdler, hustler, imp, ingate, jockey, jogger, joint, leg, limb, link, lobe, lobule, manipulator, member, message-bearer, messenger, nuncio, offshoot, operant, operative, operator, organ, page, pilot, pinion, post, postboy, postrider, racer, ramage, ramification, rumrunner, sarment, scion, scorcher, shoot, sizzler, sled, sleigh, slip, smuggler, snowmobile, spear, speed demon, speeder, spray, sprig, sprit, sprout, sprue, spur, steersman, stem, stepper, stolon, sucker, switch, tail, tedge, tendril, thallus, turfman, twig, weasel, wing

ROGET THESAURUS

Runner

Part

N part, portion, dose, item, particular, aught, any, division, ward, subdivision, section, chapter, clause, count, paragraph, verse, article, passage, sector, segment, fraction, fragment, cantle, frustum, detachment, parcel, piece, lump, bit cut, cutting, chip, chunk, collop, slice, scale, lamina, small part, morsel, particle, installment, dividend, share, debris, odds and ends, oddments, detritus, excerpta, member, limb, lobe, lobule, arm, wing, scion, branch, bough, joint, link, offshoot, ramification, twig, bush, spray, sprig, runner, leaf, leaflet, stump, component part, sarmentum, compartment, department, county, fractional, fragmentary, sectional, aliquot, divided, in compartments, multifid, disconnected, partial, partly, in part, partially, piecemeal, part by part, by by installments, by snatches, by inches, by driblets, bit by bit, inch by inch, foot by foot, drop by drop, in detail, in lots.

Petitioner

N petitioner, solicitor, applicant, suppliant, supplicant, suitor, candidate, claimant, postulant, aspirant, competitor, bidder, place hunter, pot hunter, prizer, seeker, beggar, mendicant, moocher, panhandler, freeloader, sponger, mumper, sturdy beggar, cadger, hotel runner, runner, steerer, tout, touter, pauper, homeless person, hobo, bum, tramp, bindle stiff, bo, knight of the road (poverty), hippie, flower child, hard core unemployed, welfare client, welfare case, canvasser, bagman, salesman.

Traveler

N traveler, wayfarer, voyager, itinerant, passenger, commuter, tourist, excursionist, explorer, adventurer, mountaineer, hiker, backpacker, Alpine Club, peregrinator, wanderer, rover, straggler, rambler, bird of passage, gadabout, gadling, vagrant, scatterling, landloper, waifs and estrays, wastrel, foundling, loafer, tramp, tramper, vagabond, nomad, Bohemian, gypsy, Arab, Wandering Jew, Hadji, pilgrim, palmer, peripatetic, somnambulist, emigrant, fugitive, refugee, beach comber, booly, globegirdler, globetrotter, vagrant, hobo, night walker, sleep walker, noctambulist, runabout, straphanger, swagman, swagsman, trecker, trekker, zingano, zingaro, runner, courier, Mercury, Iris, Ariel, comet, pedestrian, walker, foot passenger, cyclist, wheelman, rider, horseman, equestrian, cavalier, jockey, roughrider, trainer, breaker, driver, coachman, whip, Jehu, charioteer, postilion, postboy, carter, wagoner, drayman, cabman, cabdriver, voiturier, vetturino, condottiere, engine driver, stoker, fireman, guard, chauffeur, conductor, engineer, gharry-wallah, gari-wala, hackman, syce, truckman, on the road.

Conduit

N conduit, channel, duct, watercourse, race, head race, tail race, abito, aboideau, aboiteau, bito, acequia, acequiador, acequiamadre, arroyo, adit, aqueduct, canal, trough, gutter, pantile, flume, ingate, runner, lock-weir, tedge, vena, dike, main, gully, moat, ditch, drain, sewer, culvert, cloaca, sough, kennel, siphon, piscina, pipe, funnel, tunnel, water pipe, waste pipe, emunctory, gully hole, artery, aorta, pore, spout, scupper, adjutage, ajutage, hose, gargoyle, gurgoyle, penstock, weir, flood gate, water gate, sluice, lock, valve, rose, waterworks, pipeline, vascular.

Messenger

N messenger, envoy, emissary, legate, nuncio, internuncio, ambassador, marshal, flag bearer, herald, crier, trumpeter, bellman, pursuivant, parlementaire, apparitor, courier, runner, dak, estafette, Mercury, Iris, Ariel, commissionaire, errand boy, chore boy, newsboy, mail, overnight mail, express mail, next-day delivery, post, post office, letter bag, delivery service, United Parcel Service, UPS, Federal Express, Fedex, telegraph, telephone, cable, wire (electronic information transmission), carrier pigeon, (news) 532 reporter, gentleman of the press, representative of the press, penny-a-liner, special correspondent, own correspondent, spy, scout, informer.