passenger

Pluralpassengers

Formspassengers, passengering, passengered

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A person who travels in a vehicle without operating it or being a member of the crew.

   Each passenger fastened a seatbelt before the plane took off.

   The ferry can carry up to two hundred passengers at a time.

   Similartraveler, rider

   Oppositedriver

   Note

   Behind every sense stands Old French passagier. The n was added later in English, the same intrusive n that crept into messenger. In the core sense the word is defined by exclusion: whoever drives the vehicle or works as crew is not a passenger, however long the journey. It pairs naturally with verbs of getting aboard, as when passengers have embarked and the ship has yet to sail.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialUKcountable

   A team member who does not pull their weight, leaving the others to carry the work.

   Like one rower resting their oar while the rest of the crew strains to move the boat.

   The coach dropped two passengers who had coasted through training.

   She refused to be a passenger and took on the hardest tasks herself.

   Similarslacker, shirker, freeloader

   Note

   A chiefly British, informal extension of the traveler sense: the team carries this person the way a vehicle carries a rider, along for the journey without doing any of the driving. It is a criticism, so it is said about someone rather than to their face, and its natural home is talk of sports sides and working groups where effort should be shared.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To travel in a vehicle as a rider rather than as the person driving it.

   He prefers to passenger so he can enjoy the scenery along the way.

   They passengered across the country, swapping only to navigate at the junctions.

   Similarride

   Oppositedrive

   Note

   A verb made directly from the noun, and intransitive: you passenger, but you do not passenger someone else. For carrying others, use drive or take. Because the stress falls early, the final r is not doubled, so the forms are passengered and passengering. It suits casual talk about who drives and who rides.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   Any of the individual warheads carried by a missile built to deliver several that are each aimed independently.

   Analysts counted the passengers each missile could carry under the treaty limits.

   Once the missile reached its apex, each passenger separated to follow its own trajectory.

   Similarwarhead

   Note

   Military jargon that runs straight from the traveler sense. The missile is the vehicle, and each warhead rides along until it is released toward its own target. MIRV stands for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, so a single missile may carry several passengers. Each one is counted separately when arsenals are tallied.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A young hawk captured for falconry after it can fly but while still in its first year.

   She flew a passenger that season, prizing its keen wild instincts.

   Experienced falconers often prefer a passenger to a nestling for its hardiness.

   Note

   A falconer's term that sorts hawks by the age at which they were caught. A passenger is trapped wild after it has fledged but before its first year is out. An eyas, by contrast, is taken from the nest before it flies, and a haggard is caught as a mature adult. Knowing all three keeps falconry writing clear, since each names the same kind of bird at a different stage.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A moth of the species Dysgonia algira, belonging to the family Erebidae.

   The collector pinned a passenger beside the other underwing moths in the tray.

   At dusk, passengers gathered around the moth trap set up in the orchard.

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