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receiver

1. One who takes or receives in any manner.

2. A person appointed, ordinarily by a court, to receive, and hold in trust, money or other property which is the subject of litigation, pending the suit; a person appointed to take charge of the estate and effects of a corporation, and to do other acts necessary to winding up its affairs, in certain cases.

3. One who takes or buys stolen goods from a thief, knowing them to be stolen.

4. (Science: chemistry) A vessel connected with an alembic, a retort, or the like, for receiving and condensing the product of distillation. A vessel for receiving and containing gases.

5. (Science: physics) The glass vessel in which the vacuum is produced, and the objects of experiment are put, in experiments with an air pump. Cf. Bell jar, and

6. (Science: engineering) A vessel for receiving the exhaust steam from the high-pressure cylinder before it enters the low-pressure cylinder, in a compound engine. A capacious vessel for receiving steam from a distant boiler, and supplying it dry to an engine.

7. That portion of a telephonic apparatus, or similar system, at which the message is received and made audible; opposed to transmitter.

(Science: physics) Exhausted receiver, a receiver, as that used with the air pump, from which the air has been withdrawn; a vessel the [[interior of which is a more or less complete vacuum.

Origin: Cf. F. Receveur.