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shipping agent

shipping agent

1 3.6
A person or company that arranges cargo, customs, and port services for a ship
  • noun
  • /ˈʃɪpɪŋ ˈeɪdʒənt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : agente de carga

Examples

  • With her marriage to a shipping agent, she became part of Boston's small free Black middle class.

    Blog text (8)
  • There was a doctor, a shipping agent, an accountant, an engineer, and a dutiful wife going out to join her colonial officer husband.

    Academic text (2010)
  • This Arab of Hadrami origin was a shipping agent in the pilgrim transportation trade.

    Academic text (2018)
  • Tanzania said a shipping agent based in Dubai had reflagged 36 Iranian oil tankers with the Tanzanian flag without the country's knowledge and approval.

    Blog text (33)
  • The shipping agent arranged all the logistics for our import shipment.

  • She contacted a reliable shipping agent to handle the customs clearance for her goods.

  • The shipping agent coordinated the delivery and ensured the cargo arrived on time.

Synonyms

freight agent
vsshipping agent
1 5.0

A person who organizes and checks the arrival and delivery of goods for a shipping company

works for shipowners arranging cargo customs and port services

Surface Forms

Morphology

shipping + agent

The meaning 'a person or company handling shipments and logistics' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'shipping' (commercial movement of cargo) with 'agent' (a person who acts for others); the compound straightforwardly denotes an agent working in shipping. This noun-compound pattern is common in English and cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.

Etymology

Shipping agent shows a simple picture: shipping is moving goods by ship and agent is someone who works for another person. Imagine that person at the dock doing the paperwork, talking to 'customs', and arranging cargo, so it now means the person or company who handles shipments for the 'shipowner'.