▪ I. postman1
(ˈpəʊstmən)
[f. post n.2 + man n.1]
1. A bearer or carrier of letters or other postal matter: a. orig. A courier who rode ‘post’. b. Now, One who delivers letters, etc., sent through the post, or collects them from the letter-boxes, receiving offices, etc.; a letter-carrier.
| 1529 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. V. 383 David Mullray usher of the kitchen door, John Anderson, postman [etc.]. 1600 Child-Marriages 179 Receiued one packquet..to be conveyed by the poste to Sir Roberte Cecill; which was, presentley vppon the receipt thereof, deliuered to the post⁓man to be conveyed accordingly. 1621 Quarles Esther viii, By speedy Post men were the Letters sent. 1758 in Howell State Trials 1371, I received every one of these letters from the postman of the walk. 1783 Johnson 23 Mar. in Boswell, I may as well make a present to the postman who brings me a letter. 1785 Crabbe Newspaper 269 We..wait till the post-man brings the packet down. 1839 Thackeray Major Gahagan iii, As every twopenny postman knows. 1882 ‘Ouida’ Maremma vii, The postman came over the plains..very irregularly to Santa Tarsilla. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 6 Feb. 10/1 In the Franco-German war,..pigeons did excellent service, and on the Continent experiments with these postmen of the air are going on continually. |
c. Comb., as postman-like adj. and adv.; postman-pigeon, the carrier pigeon.
| 1832 Miss Mitford Village Ser. v. (1863) 410 More sins than I can remember, of forgetfulness, irregularity, and all manner of postman-like faults. 1901 Munsey's Mag. XXV. 421/1 In his home life, the postman pigeon is most exemplary. He is a faithful husband and a fond father. |
d. In the possessive, as postman's knock: (a) a sharp knock or rap upon a door, typically made by a postman;(b) transf., esp. a parlour game in which the participants in turn take the role of postman and deliver letters which are paid for by kisses.
| 1835 Marryat Pirate v, That's the postman's knock. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxix. 312 Sam Weller..was displaying that beautiful feat of fancy sliding which is currently denominated ‘knocking at the cobbler's door’, and which is achieved by skimming over the ice on one foot, and occasionally giving a two-penny postman's knock upon it, with the other. 1847 Sporting Life 11 Dec. 204/1 The postman's knock—a quick rat-tap, which only a postman can execute. 1873 C. M. Yonge Pillars of House III. xxxii. 199 A postman's knock made her start. 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 12, I was interested to see the kissing-forfeit game of postman's knock under the guise of ‘American post’. 1928 Daily Express 30 July 13/6 Rose's left glove was seldom out of his opponent's face, and he often brought off a punch which in the old days was called ‘The Postman's Knock’. 1954 M. Sharp Gipsy in Parlour xii. 125 Postman's Knock found me..maladroit: to one pimply youth who called me out I presented such a face of scorn that he never kissed me. |
† 2. A newsman, a news-writer. Obs.
The Postman was the name of a newspaper c 1700: cf. Spectator No. 1 ¶5, etc.
| 1700 Pepys Corr. 12 Apr., You want..some news: there⁓fore let me be your postman, and tell you that the State has been for some time under no small convulsion in Parliament. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 18 ¶6, I mean the News Writers of Great Britain, whether Post-Men or Post-Boys, or by what other Name or Title soever dignified or distinguished. |
▪ II. † ˈpostman2 Obs.
[Of doubtful composition: possibly allied to post-knight, or knight of the post, and poet of the post: see post n.1 2.]
app. A hireling writer of libels or scurrilous falsehoods.
| 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 91 These men in blacking the lives and actions of the Reformers, have partly devised matter of..notorious untruth..; partly suborned other Postmen to compose their Legends, that afterwards they might cite them in proofe to the world as approved authors and histories. |
▪ III. † postman3 Obs. exc. Hist.
[f. post n.1 + man n.1]
A barrister in the Court of Exchequer who had precedence in motions except in Crown business, till the Exchequer was merged in the Queen's Bench Division: the name was derived from the post, the measure of length in excise cases, beside which he took his stand. Cf. tubman.
| 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. iii. 28 margin, In the Court of Exchequer two of the most experienced barristers, called the postman and the tubman (from the places in which they sit) have also a precedence in motions. 1882 Daily News 15 Dec. 2/1 The last of the postmen was Mr. Charles Hall, Q.C., Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales. 1886 Pall Mall G. 9 Aug. 6/1 Sir R. Webster..was called to the bar (Lincoln's Inn) in 1868, held the obsolete posts of ‘tubman’ of the Court of Exchequer 1872–74, and ‘postman’ 1874–78, and took silk in 1878. |