/meɪl/ noun, verb
Forms mails mailing mailed maille maile maill
- noun (now regional) A bag or wallet.
- noun A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.
- noun The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service. “Don't forget to pick up the mail on your way.”
- noun (chiefly US, uncountable) The letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person. “It should be in your mail today, unless the post office lost it!”
- noun (dated) A stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.
- noun The postal service or system in general. “He decided to send his declaration by mail.”
- noun (uncountable) Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages. “Yahoo Mail has been providing mail service since 1997.”
- noun (uncountable) Email messages conceived in bulk (as with the analogous sense of physical mail). “You've got mail [old audio clip announcing new email in the 1990s-2000s]”
- verb (ditransitive) To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.
- verb (ditransitive) To send by electronic mail. “Please mail me the spreadsheet by the end of the day.”
- verb (transitive) To contact (a person) by electronic mail. “I need to mail my tutor about the deadline.”
- noun (uncountable, history) Armour consisting of metal rings linked together.
- noun (uncountable, by extension, now fiction, fantasy) Armour consisting of small plates linked together.
- noun (nautical) A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.
- noun Any hard protective covering of an animal, as the scales and plates of reptiles, shell of a lobster, etc.
- noun (obsolete, rare) A spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.
- verb (transitive) To arm with mail.
- verb (transitive) To pinion.
- noun (historical) An old French coin worth half a denier.
- noun (chiefly Scotland) A monetary payment or tribute.
Synonyms
snail mail post email mail service postal service chain mail ring mail chain armor chain armour ring armor ring armour get off send
Antonyms
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.
From Middle English mayle (“mail armor”), borrowed from Old French maille (“loop, stitch”), from Vulgar Latin *macla, from Latin macula (“blemish, mesh”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tleh₂, from *smeh₁- (“smear, rub”). Compare maillot.
From Middle English mal, male from Old English māl (“speech, contract, agreement”) from Old Norse mál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”). Akin to Old English mǣl (“speech”). Related to Old English mǣlan (mell), maþelian (“to speak out, declare”). From *maþlą (“meeting-place”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to encounter, come”), if so, related to meet, and moot.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A spot. [Obs.]
- noun A small piece of money; especially, an English silver half-penny of the time of Henry V. [Obs.] [Written also maile, and maille.]
- noun Rent; tribute. [Obs., except in certain compounds and phrases, as blackmail, mails and duties, etc.] Mail and duties (Scots Law), the rents of an estate, in whatever form paid.
- noun A flexible fabric made of metal rings interlinked. It was used especially for defensive armor. Chaucer. Chain mail, Coat of mail.
Etymology [F. maille, OF. also maaille, LL. medalia. See Medal.]
Etymology [OE. maile, maille, F. maille a ring of mail, mesh, network, a coat of mail, fr. L. macula spot, a mesh of a net. Cf. Macle, Macula, Mascle.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mail”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details