Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Runner \Run"ner\, n. [From {Run}.]
   1. One who, or that which, runs; a racer.

   2. A detective. [Slang, Eng.] --Dickens.

   3. A messenger. --Swift.

   4. A smuggler. [Colloq.] --R. North.

   5. One employed to solicit patronage, as for a steamboat,
      hotel, shop, etc. [Cant, U.S.]

   6. (Bot.) A slender trailing branch which takes root at the
      joints or end and there forms new plants, as in the
      strawberry and the common cinquefoil.

   7. The rotating stone of a set of millstones.

   8. (Naut.) A rope rove through a block and used to increase
      the mechanical power of a tackle. --Totten.

Source : WordNet®

runner
     n 1: someone who imports or exports without paying duties [syn: {smuggler},
           {contrabandist}, {moon curser}, {moon-curser}]
     2: someone who travels on foot by running
     3: a person who is employed to deliver messages or documents;
        "he sent a runner over with the contract"
     4: a baseball player on the team at bat who is on base (or
        attempting to reach a base) [syn: {base runner}]
     5: a horizontal branch from the base of plant that produces new
        plants from buds at its tips [syn: {stolon}, {offset}]
     6: a trained athlete who competes in foot races
     7: a long narrow carpet
     8: device consisting of the parts on which something can slide
        along
     9: fish of western Atlantic: Cape Cod to Brazil [syn: {blue
        runner}, {Caranx crysos}]