envoy Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a diplomat having less authority than an ambassador
    envoy extraordinary; minister plenipotentiary.
  2. noun someone sent on a mission to represent the interests of someone else
    emissary.
  3. noun a brief stanza concluding certain forms of poetry
    envoi.

WordNet


En"voy noun
Etymology
F. envoyé envoy, fr. envoyer to send; pref. en- (L. in) + voie way, L. via: cf. F. envoi an envoy (in sense 2). See Voyage, and cf. Invoice.
Definitions
  1. One dispatched upon an errand or mission; a messenger; esp., a person deputed by a sovereign or a government to negotiate a treaty, or transact other business, with a foreign sovereign or government; a minister accredited to a foreign government. An envoy's rank is below that of an ambassador.
  2. F. envoi, fr. envoyer to send. An explanatory or commendatory postscript to a poem, essay, or book; -- also in the French from, l'envoi.
    The envoy of a ballad is the "sending" of it forth. Skeat.

Webster 1913