mail — English Dictionary

mail
Pronunciations (3)
  • /meɪl/
    Pronunciation notes
    • General-American
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /mel/
    Pronunciation notes
    • India
    • North
  • /mɛj(ɪ)l/
    Pronunciation notes
    • India
    • South

Noun

  1. A bag or wallet.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Regional
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale; / A brydelynge caste for that is in thy male!

    Open the Males, yet guard the treaſure ſure. Lay out our golden wedges to the view, That their reflexions may amaze the Perſeans.

  2. A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  3. The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Synonyms
    Antonyms
    Examples

    Meronym: mailpiece

    Don't forget to pick up the mail on your way.

    More examples (3)

    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: ¶ […]

    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.

    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.

  4. The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service. The letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person.

    Usage
    • US usage
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    It should be in your mail today, unless the post office lost it!

  5. A stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Dated
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    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.

    More examples (2)

    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; [...].

    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.

  6. The postal service or system in general.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Synonyms
    Examples

    He decided to send his declaration by mail.

  7. Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages.

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    Synonyms
    Examples

    Yahoo Mail has been providing mail service since 1997.

  8. Email messages conceived in bulk (as with the analogous sense of physical mail).

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    Synonyms
    Examples

    You've got mail [old audio clip announcing new email in the 1990s-2000s]

  9. An email message.

    Usage
    • India
    • Countable
    • especially
    Synonyms
    Examples

    Please look through those mails and confirm whether you received the one about scheduling.

  10. A trunk, box, or bag, in which clothing, etc., may be carried.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    “Fetch me the little private mail with the padlocks, that I recommended to your particular charge — d'ye hear?”

Verb

  1. To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.

    Usage
    • Ditransitive
  2. To send by electronic mail.

    Usage
    • Ditransitive
    Examples

    Please mail me the spreadsheet by the end of the day.

    There has been a crackdown on non-ARPA use of a local ARPA gateway, so I am reluctant to attempt to mail the file to ARPA sites.

    More examples (2)

    Since .mp3's are so big (well for me with a 33.6kp/s connection they are anyway) maybe you should offer on your site to mail the file to people who want it, and have them request it, thus saving your web space, your upload time and their download time […]

    If you mail an attachment from one mail client then it does not matter if the receiver uses a different mail client. The mail you send should be able to be read from their mail client.

  3. To contact (a person) by electronic mail.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    I need to mail my tutor about the deadline.

    I was horrified but my data was OK. Then, it saw it open my e-mail package and start to mail my friends. I turned the power off.

    More examples (2)

    'Yes, at Quantico. She was so excited by it, she sent all those emails, you remember I told you about it -' 'Yes, she mailed me from there too.'

    He mailed me and said he had managed to hack into my email accounts.

Noun

  1. Armour consisting of metal rings linked together.

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    • usually
    Examples

    The knight is laid in his mail, only the hands and face being bare.

    "That's funny looking mail, Sire," said Eustace. "Aye, lad," said Tirian. "No Narnian dwarf smithied that. […]

    More examples (1)

    Under the sea-girt cliffs the shining ship was readied, laden with coats of mail, swords, and gleaming war harness.

  2. Armour consisting of small plates linked together.

    Usage
    • broadly
    • Uncountable
    • usually
  3. A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    • usually
  4. Any hard protective covering of an animal, as the scales and plates of reptiles, shell of a lobster, etc.

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    • usually
    Examples

    We […] strip the lobster of his scarlet mail.

    There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, / And metal wrought like fishes' mail, / Buckler and corslet, axe and sword, / And shining spears were laid in hoard.

  5. A spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    • Rare
    • Uncountable
    • usually
    Examples

    [T]he moorish-fly: made with the body of duskish wool; and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake.

Verb

  1. To arm with mail.

    Usage
    • Transitive
  2. To pinion.

    Usage
    • Transitive

Noun

  1. An old French coin worth half a denier.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Historical
    • Uncountable
  2. A monetary payment or tribute.

    Usage
    • Scotland
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  3. Rent.

    Usage
    • Scotland
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  4. Tax.

    Usage
    • Scotland
    • Countable
    • Uncountable

Noun

  1. the bags of letters and packages that are transported by the postal service

    Broader terms
  2. the system whereby messages are transmitted via the post office

    Examples

    the mail handles billions of items every day

    he works for the United States mail service

    More examples (1)

    in England they call mail ‘the post’

  3. a conveyance that transports the letters and packages that are conveyed by the postal system

    Broader terms
  4. any particular collection of letters or packages that is delivered

    Synonyms
    Examples

    your mail is on the table

    is there any post for me?

    More examples (1)

    she was opening her post

  5. (Middle Ages) flexible armor made of interlinked metal rings

Verb

  1. send via the postal service

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    I'll mail you the check tomorrow

  2. cause to be directed or transmitted to another place

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    send me your latest results

    I'll mail you the paper when it's written

Word forms
mailsmailsmailingmailedmailedmaillemailemaill

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