1. provider(n = noun.person) supplier - someone whose business is to supply a particular service or commodity;
is a kind of bourgeois, businessperson
has particulars: black marketeer, caterer, connection, dispenser, distributer, distributor, purveyor, recruiter, stockist, provisioner, sutler, victualer, victualler
Derived form verb provide1
2. provider(n = noun.person) - someone who provides the means for subsistence;
is a kind of benefactor, helper
Derived form verb provide2
One who provides, furnishes, or supplies; one who procures what is wanted. [1913 Webster]
provider, n.
1 a person or thing that provides.
2 the breadwinner of a family etc.