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telegraph

 - 4 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.
Cite This Source Link To telegraph
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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Slang Dictionary
telegraph (one's)

  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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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-) + -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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