Language: en
Meaning: (acting)Apersonin aplayormoviewith a minimalpart; anextra.2004July 15,Jesse McKinley, “Close Call On Broadway Had Its Roots On the Road”, inNew York Times, retrieved19 March 2014:[A]ctors would get annual raises through 2008, when even the lowliestspear carrierwill make more than $1,500 a week for being on Broadway.; (idiomatic,by extension)One who serves in asubordinateormenialrole.2009January 8,Linda Greenhouse, “Opinion: The Chief Justice on the Spot”, inNew York Times, retrieved19 March 2014:A case sitting quietly in the Supreme Court’s in-basket promises to tell us more than almost any other about John G. Roberts Jr. and his evolution fromspear carrierin the Reagan revolution to chief justice of the United States.2010February 26, Adrian Hamilton, “Can we halt our slide to the margins?”, inThe Independent, UK, retrieved19 March 2014:Britain is now widely dismissed—more often in sorrow than in anger—as just an Americanspear-carrierwithout any real force of its own.; (idiomatic)One who plays aleadingorsubstantialrole as asupporter,proponent, etc. representing agroup,cause, orpoint of view.2006July 23, James Carney, “The Rise and Fall of Ralph Reed”, inTime, retrieved19 March 2014:Reed was the preternaturally boyishspear carrierfor the religious right, the brash Evangelical who transformed the Christian Coalition into a populist power center.2024December 13, Paul Monk, “Add this to your must-read list”, inThe Australian, retrieved14 December 2024:Why would he do that? Because Hu Yaobang embodied the sense of historical mission in Chinese communism; spent his entire adult life honestly attempting to fulfil that mission; and was the spear carrier, after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, for not only economic, but also political, judicial and cultural reform.
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