receiver

From Anglo-Norman receverre, receivour et al., later also reformed as receive +‎ -er. Compare recevor, rescaivour.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈsi.vɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈsiː.və/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːvə(ɹ)

receiver (plural receivers)

1. A person who receives.
   1. (now historical) An official whose job is to receive taxes or other monies; a tax collector, a treasurer. [from 14th c.]
   2. A person who receives something in a general sense; a recipient. [from 14th c.]
      • 1850, Charles Dickens, “The Begging-Letter Writer”, in Household Words:

        I, the writer of this paper, have been, for some time, a chosen receiver of Begging Letters.

   3. A person who accepts stolen goods. [from 14th c.]
   4. A person or company appointed to settle the affairs of an insolvent entity. [from 18th c.]
      • 1961 October, “Talking of Trains: Last of the M.S.W.J.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 585:

        It took the name Midland & South Western Junction in 1884 and reached Cheltenham, with its M.R. connection, in 1891; but poverty continued - a receiver had been appointed in 1884.

      Synonyms: insolvency administrator, insolvency practitioner, liquidator, administrator, court administrator, trustee in bankruptcy

   5. (American football) An offensive player who catches the ball after it has been passed. [from 19th c.]
   6. (racquet sports) A person who attempts to return the serve. [from 20th c.]
2. An item or apparatus that receives.
   1. Something which receives some substance or object, in a general sense; a receptacle. [from 14th c.]
   2. (chemistry) A vessel for receiving and holding the products of distillation, or for containing gases. [from 16th c.]
   3. (now chiefly historical) An airtight vessel from which air is pumped in order to form a vacuum. [from 17th c.]
      • 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 839:

        A man can live in thick air, but perishes in an exhausted receiver.

   4. (firearms) The part of a firearm containing the action. [from 19th c.]
   5. (now historical) A vessel for receiving the exhaust steam from the high-pressure cylinder before it enters the low-pressure cylinder, in a compound steam engine. [from 19th c.]
   6. Any of several electronic devices that receive electromagnetic waves, or signals transmitted as such. [from 19th c.]

      Antonym: transmitter

      • 1976, Boating (volume 40, numbers 1-2, page 152)

        The FCC says it decided to attempt standardization of VHF receivers after getting "thousands of complaints" from disgruntled boatmen who found their sets brought in mostly a lot of garble and static.

   7. The part of a telephone handset contained in the earpiece; (hence) the handset itself; an earpiece. [from 19th c.]
   8. (finance) A swaption which gives its holder the option to enter into a swap in which they pay the floating leg and receive the fixed leg.

• (electronic device that receives signals and converts them into sound or vision): transmitter-receiver, transceiver