mail
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /meɪl/
homophone: male
Forms: form: mails
Etymology: From Middle English male, from Anglo-Norman male, Old French male (“bag, wallet”), from Frankish *malha (“bag”), from Proto-Germanic *malhō (“bag, pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *molko- (“leather pouch”). Compare Dutch maal.
Senses: examples: text: What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale; / A brydelynge caste for that is in thy male!
ref: 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
text: Open the Males, yet guard the treaſure ſure.
Lay out our golden wedges to the view,
That their reflexions may amaze the Perſeans.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
glosses: A bag or wallet.
glosses: A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.
examples: text: Meronym: mailpiece
text: Don't forget to pick up the mail on your way.
text: 1823, The stranger in Liverpool; or, An historical and descriptive view of the town of Liverpool and its environs, Seventh Edition, T. Kaye, page 96,
The following are the hours at which the letter-box of this office is closed for making up the several mails, and the hours at which each mail is despatched: ¶ […]
text: 1887, John Houston Merrill (editor), The American and English Encyclopædia of Law, Volume I, Edward Thompson, p.121,
If he retains the account, and permits several mails to pass without objecting to it, he will be held to have admitted its correctness.
text: The transfer by tender of some 1,300 mail bags was effected smartly, and the "Ocean Mails Special" train was ready at 9.19 a.m.
ref: 1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, page 202:
synonyms: snail mail
antonyms: email
mail
glosses: The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service.
examples: text: It should be in your mail today, unless the post office lost it!
synonyms: snail mail
antonyms: email
mail
glosses: The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service.
The letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person.
examples: text: All trains stop at all stations, with the exception of a few "local" stations near Mombasa and an odd flag stop or two usually missed by the mails.
ref: 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 263:
text: On the morning after the one-day strike, October 4, one of the Type 4s on crew-training, No. D169, was appropriated to head the 3 a.m. mail to Hull, as no steam locomotive had been lit up and the usual Hull Type 3 was not available; [...].
ref: 1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, pages 422, 425:
text: As he passed though the station, he slowed to yell to the signalman, Frank 'Sailor' Bridges: "Sailor - have you anything between here and Fordham? Where's the mail?" Gimbert knew the mail train was due, and he didn't want to endanger another train with his burning bomb wagon.
ref: 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:
glosses: A stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.
examples: text: He decided to send his declaration by mail.
synonyms: word: post
glosses: The postal service or system in general.
examples: text: Yahoo Mail has been providing mail service since 1997.
synonyms: email
glosses: Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages.
examples: text: You've got mail [old audio clip announcing new email in the 1990s-2000s]
synonyms: email
glosses: Email messages conceived in bulk (as with the analogous sense of physical mail).
examples: text: Please look through those mails and confirm whether you received the one about scheduling.
synonyms: email
glosses: An email message.
examples: text: “Fetch me the little private mail with the padlocks, that I recommended to your particular charge — d'ye hear?”
ref: 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
glosses: A trunk, box, or bag, in which clothing, etc., may be carried.
Derived terms: accountable mail
admail
advertising mail
aeromail
air mail
airmail
balloon mail
barfmail
bicycle mail
bugmail
buttock mail
by return mail
carry the mail
certified mail
chain-mail
chain mail
check is in the mail
cybermail
direct mail
dogsled mail
echomail
electronic mail
e-mail
email
e-mail address
facemail
fakemail
fan mail
flamemail
freemail
Gmail
G-mail
ham e-mail
hate mail
jingle mail
junk mail
mail art
mailbag
mail bag
mailboat
mail bomb
mail bombing
mail box
mail-box
mailbox
mailcall
mail car
mailcar
mail carrier
mail-carrier
mailcart
mailcatcher
mail-cheeked
mailclad
mail clerk
mailcoach
mail cover
maildrop
mailer
mailfile
mail fraud
mailgram
mail-in
mailing list
mail lady
mailless
mailman
mail merge
mail-merge
mail order
mail-order
mail-order bride
mailout
mail-out
mailpack
mailpeople
mailperson
mailpiece
mailplane
mail relay
mailroom
mailrun
mails
mailsack
mail shirt
mailshot
mail slot
mail stop
mailstore
mailstorm
mail train
mail truck
mail user agent
mailvan
mailwoman
maily
mismail
modmail
netmail
nonmail
penny mail
play-by-mail
read the mail
registered mail
ringmail
seamail
silver mail
snail-mail
snail mail
surface mail
town mail
unmail
videomail
V-mail
v-mail
voice mail
voicemail
vote-by-mail
webmail
whitemail
zeppelin mail