Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An agent sent on a mission to represent or advance the interests of another.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Emitting; sending out; furnishing an outlet.
  • Of or pertaining to one sent on a mission; exploring; spying.
  • noun A person sent on a mission, particularly a private mission or business; an agent employed for the promotion of a cause or of his employer's interests: now commonly used in a bad or contemptuous sense, and usually implying some degree of secrecy or chicanery.
  • noun An outlet for water; a channel by which water is drawn from a lake: as the emissary of the Alban lake.
  • noun In anatomy, that which emits or sends out; a vessel through which excretion takes place; an excretory or emunctory: chiefly used in the plural. Also emissarium.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Exploring; spying.
  • adjective (Anat.) Applied to the veins which pass out of the cranium through apertures in its walls.
  • noun An agent employed to advance, in a covert manner, the interests of his employers; one sent out by any power that is at war with another, to create dissatisfaction among the people of the latter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An agent sent on a mission to represent the interests of someone else.
  • noun anatomy A venous channel in the skull.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone sent on a mission to represent the interests of someone else

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ēmissārius, from ēmissus, past participle of ēmittere, to send out; see emit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin emissarius ("agent, scout, spy") directly or via French émissaire

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Examples

  • When Frank Merriam arrived at room 622 of the Ambassador Hotel for his audience with J.F.T. O'Connor, the emissary from the White House, the possibility that President Roosevelt might actually express support for his candidacy, once so farfetched it was laughable, now seemed within reach.

    Greg Mitchell: Dispatches From Incredible 1934 Campaign: When FDR Sold Out Upton Sinclair Greg Mitchell 2010

  • When Frank Merriam arrived at room 622 of the Ambassador Hotel for his audience with J.F.T. O'Connor, the emissary from the White House, the possibility that President Roosevelt might actually express support for his candidacy, once so farfetched it was laughable, now seemed within reach.

    Greg Mitchell: Dispatches From Incredible 1934 Campaign: When FDR Sold Out Upton Sinclair Greg Mitchell 2010

  • I†™ m an emissary from a highly technological civilization and I†™ ve been sent to talk to the Leaf People.

    365 tomorrows » 2007 » December : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2007

  • I†™ m an emissary from a highly technological civilization and I†™ ve been sent to talk to the Leaf People.

    365 tomorrows » Green Moon : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2007

  • In his latest, he remembers Audrey Hepburn 14 years after her death: "In the 40 years between Hollywood's make-believe headlines and the horrifying reality of Somalia, Hepburn as actress and woman seemed an emissary from a finer world than ours."

    GreenCine Daily: Weekend shorts, fests, etc. 2007

  • That spring, an emissary from the English came to Kahnawake.

    History of American Women Maggiemac 2008

  • But he wasn't one to press too hard, so he had no worries as he drove the several miles from his office to the Tashreeya area of Baghdad, near the old Cabinet Building, where an emissary from the President met him and instructed him to leave his car.

    Tales of the Tyrant 2002

  • But he wasn't one to press too hard, so he had no worries as he drove the several miles from his office to the Tashreeya area of Baghdad, near the old Cabinet Building, where an emissary from the President met him and instructed him to leave his car.

    Tales of the Tyrant 2002

  • W.T. took his hat off and bowed to her with as much ceremony as if she had been an old-time marquise and he an emissary from the English Court.

    The White Cottage Mystery Allingham, Margery, 1904-1966. n 50021032-1 1975

  • MR. JOHN C.M. MACBETH: Gentlemen of The Empire Club: We are happy to welcome today an emissary from the office of the British High Commissioner at Ottawa, who is going to address us on the subject "Dunkirk to Dieppe and Beyond."

    Dunkirk to Dieppe and Beyond 1942

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