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telegraph

 [tel-i-graf, -grahf]   Example Sentences Origin

tel·e·graph

   [tel-i-graf, -grahf]
noun
1.
an apparatus, system, or process for transmitting messages or signals to a distant place, especially 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.

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Telegraph is one of our favorite verbs.
So is subtilize. Does it mean:
to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.
to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.
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verb (used without object)
7.
to send a message by telegraph.
Origin:
< French 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
pre·tel·e·graph, adjective
re·tel·e·graph, verb
un·tel·e·graphed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To telegraph
Example Sentences
  • Other times it doesn't, as when the telegraph network failed to devour the telephone.
  • Telegraph firms would establish a new monopoly over news delivery, and would sell early access to the news to the highest bidder.
  • It is more than a bush telegraph or village gossip, more than the latest headlines.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
telegraph (ˈtɛlɪˌɡræf, -ˌɡrɑːf)
 
—n
1.  a.  a device, system, or process by which information can be transmitted over a distance, esp using radio signals or coded electrical signals sent along a transmission line connected to a transmitting and a receiving instrument
 b.  (as modifier): telegraph pole
2.  a message transmitted by such a device, system, or process; telegram
 
—vb
3.  to send a telegram to (a person or place); wire
4.  (tr) to transmit or send by telegraph
5.  informal (tr) boxing to prepare to deliver (a punch) so obviously that one's opponent has ample time to avoid it
6.  (tr) to give advance notice of (anything), esp unintentionally
7.  informal (Canadian) (tr) to cast (votes) illegally by impersonating registered voters
 
telegraphist
 
—n
 
te'legrapher
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

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-; see tele-) + -graphe. The signaling device had been invented in France in 1791 by
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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. Related: Telegraphic.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
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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Slang Dictionary

telegraph (one's) definition


  1. tv.
    to signal, unintentionally, what blows one is about to strike. (Boxing.) : Don't telegraph your punches, kid! You'll be flat on your back in twenty seconds.
  2. tv.
    to signal, unintentionally, one's intentions. : The mediator telegraphed his punches, and we were prepared with a strong counter argument.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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