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telegraph - 6 dictionary results

tel⋅e⋅graph

  [tel-i-graf, -grahf]
Use telegraph in a Sentence
–noun
1. an apparatus, system, or process for transmitting messages or signals to a distant place, esp. by means of an electric device consisting essentially of a sending instrument and a distant receiving instrument connected by a conducting wire or other communications channel.
2. Nautical. an apparatus, usually mechanical, for transmitting and receiving orders between the bridge of a ship and the engine room or some other part of the engineering department.
3. a telegraphic message.
–verb (used with object)
4. to transmit or send (a message) by telegraph.
5. to send a message to (a person) by telegraph.
6. Informal. to divulge or indicate unwittingly (one's intention, next offensive move, etc.), as to an opponent or to an audience; broadcast: The fighter telegraphed his punch and his opponent was able to parry it. If you act nervous too early in the scene, you'll telegraph the character's guilt.
–verb (used without object)
7. to send a message by telegraph.
Origin:
< F télégraphe (1792) a kind of manual signaling device; see tele- 1 , -graph

Related forms:
te⋅leg⋅ra⋅pher  [tuh-leg-ruh-fer] ; especially British, te⋅leg⋅ra⋅phist, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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tel·e·graph   (těl'ĭ-grāf')   
n.  
  1. A communications system that transmits and receives simple unmodulated electric impulses, especially one in which the transmission and reception stations are directly connected by wires.
  2. A message transmitted by telegraph; a telegram.
v.   tel·e·graphed, tel·e·graph·ing, tel·e·graphs

v.   tr.
  1. To transmit (a message) by telegraph.
  2. To send or convey a message to (a recipient) by telegraph.
    1. To make known (a feeling or an attitude, for example) by nonverbal means: telegraphed her derision with a smirk.
    2. To make known (an intended action, for example) in advance or unintentionally: By massing troops on the border, the enemy telegraphed its intended invasion to the target country.
v.   intr.
To send or transmit a telegram.
te·leg'ra·pher (tə-lěg'rə-fər), te·leg'ra·phist (-fĭst) n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Telegraph

Tel"e*graph\, n. [Gr. ? far, far off (cf. Lith. toli) + -graph: cf. F. t['e]l['e]graphe. See Graphic.] An apparatus, or a process, for communicating intelligence rapidly between distant points, especially by means of preconcerted visible or audible signals representing words or ideas, or by means of words and signs, transmitted by electrical action.

Note: The instruments used are classed as indicator, type-printing, symbol-printing, or chemical-printing telegraphs, according as the intelligence is given by the movements of a pointer or indicator, as in Cooke & Wheatstone's (the form commonly used in England), or by impressing, on a fillet of paper, letters from types, as in House's and Hughe's, or dots and marks from a sharp point moved by a magnet, as in Morse's, or symbols produced by electro-chemical action, as in Bain's. In the offices in the United States the recording instrument is now little used, the receiving operator reading by ear the combinations of long and short intervals of sound produced by the armature of an electro-magnet as it is put in motion by the opening and breaking of the circuit, which motion, in registering instruments, traces upon a ribbon of paper the lines and dots used to represent the letters of the alphabet. See Illustration in Appendix.

Acoustic telegraph. See under Acoustic.

Dial telegraph, a telegraph in which letters of the alphabet and numbers or other symbols are placed upon the border of a circular dial plate at each station, the apparatus being so arranged that the needle or index of the dial at the receiving station accurately copies the movements of that at the sending station.

Electric telegraph, or Electro-magnetic telegraph, a telegraph in which an operator at one station causes words or signs to be made at another by means of a current of electricity, generated by a battery and transmitted over an intervening wire.

Facsimile telegraph. See under Facsimile.

Indicator telegraph. See under Indicator.

Pan-telegraph, an electric telegraph by means of which a drawing or writing, as an autographic message, may be exactly reproduced at a distant station.

Printing telegraph, an electric telegraph which automatically prints the message as it is received at a distant station, in letters, not signs.

Signal telegraph, a telegraph in which preconcerted signals, made by a machine, or otherwise, at one station, are seen or heard and interpreted at another; a semaphore.

Submarine telegraph cable, a telegraph cable laid under water to connect stations separated by a body of water.

Telegraph cable, a telegraphic cable consisting of several conducting wires, inclosed by an insulating and protecting material, so as to bring the wires into compact compass for use on poles, or to form a strong cable impervious to water, to be laid under ground, as in a town or city, or under water, as in the ocean.

Telegraph plant (Bot.), a leguminous plant (Desmodium gyrans) native of the East Indies. The leaflets move up and down like the signals of a semaphore.

Telegraph

Tel"e*graph\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Telegraphed; p. pr. & vb. n. Telegraphing.] [F. t['e]l['e]graphier.] To convey or announce by telegraph.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : telegraph
Spanish: telégrafo,
German: der Telegraph,
Japanese: 電信
More Translations »

telegraph 
1794, "semaphor apparatus" (hence the Telegraph Hill in many cities), lit. "that which writes at a distance," from Fr. télégraphe, from télé- "far" (from Gk. tele-) + -graphe. The signaling device had been invented in France in 1791 by the brothers Chappe, who had called it tachygraphe, lit. "that which writes fast," but the better name was suggested to them by Fr. diplomat Comte André-François Miot de Mélito (1762-1841). First applied 1797 to an experimental electric telegraph (designed by Dr. Don Francisco Salva at Barcelona); the practical version was developed 1830s by Samuel Morse. The verb is attested from 1805; fig. meaning "to signal one's intentions" is first attested 1925, originally in boxing.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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telegraph   (těl'ĭ-grāf')  Pronunciation Key 
A communications system in which a message in the form of short, rapid electric impulses is sent, either by wire or radio, to a receiving station. Morse code is often used to encode messages in a form that is easily transmitted through electric impulses.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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