See Also: passenger(medicine)
passenger(dictionary)
passenger(dictionary)
passenger pigeon(encyclopedia)
passenger seat(dictionary)
Mid-air passenger exchange(tourism)

passenger (iou)



passenger noun & adjective. ME.
[Old & mod. French passager use as noun of adjective meaning 'passing', formed as PASSAGE noun: see -ER2. For the intrusive n cf. harbinger, messenger, etc.]
A. noun.
A traveller (usually on foot). Now rare exc. in foot-passenger or as in sense 3. ME.
Pope The snappish cur (the passenger's annoy) Close at my heel.
A vessel carrying passengers; a ferry. ME-M17.
b. The operator of a ferry. ME-L16
A traveller in or on a public or private conveyance; any occupant of such a conveyance other than the driver, pilot, crew, etc. E16.
G. Greene The purser..watched the passengers cross the..quay. Day Lewis I enjoy..flying in an air-liner, where the passengers are snugly enclosed. P. Theroux Most of the passengers got out here and stumbled across the tracks.
b. A member of a team, crew, etc., who does no effective work and is consequently a burden on the other members. colloq. M19.
L. P. Davies The scheme was really yours..Jack Latham wasn't much more than a passenger.
c. A passenger train. colloq. L19.
d. Medicine. A passenger cell. L20.
A bird of passage; spec. a passage-hawk. L16-L17.
Comb.: passenger-mile a unit of traffic measurement representing one passenger travelling a distance of one mile; passenger-pigeon a N. American pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, noted for its long migrations in huge flocks, and hunted to extinction by 1914.
b. attrib. or as adjective.
Of or pertaining to passengers; spec. for the use of a passenger or passengers. E17.
A. Price He was on the passenger list. A. Munro Catherine..slides out of the car on the passenger side.
Medicine & Biology. Designating a cell, gene, etc., which is transported by, or carried within, another organism, tissue, etc., in the manner of a passenger within a vehicle. M20.
Science News The hypothesis that 'passenger' white blood cells in the transplant are..responsible for the recipient's immune response.
passengered adjective (rare) (of a conveyance) carrying or occupied by passengers E20.