possum (posum)

i. [ IMG:content-0704.jpg:[blocks in formation] stake, = OFries. post = D. MLG. post, post (of post1 (post), n. [ position. Cf. post2.] 1. A piece of timber, metal (solid or built up), or other solid substance, of considerable size, set upright, and intended as a support to a weight or structure ment for something: as, the posts of a door or resting upon it, or as a firm point of attach of a gate; a king - post, queen- post, tru - post, bed - post; iron posts supporting the floor of a building; a hitching - post, etc. And Samson... took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts , and went away with them, bar and all. Judges xvi. 3. Through the gla the clothes-line posts Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts. Whittier, Snow-Bound. IMG:content-0705.jpg:[blocks in formation] Vse all po ible diligence in well vpholdynge and forty, fyinge the caue arches of trauersed with stronge postes of tymber after the maner of framed beames, susteyned with grose and stronge pyles made of good and stronge tymber of oke or other great trees. R. Eden, tr. of Biringuccio's Pyrotechnia (First Books on [America, ed. Arber, p. 359). tions were fixed; also, an upright piece of timber used for (bt) An upright piece of timber upon which pro clam a keeping a score when marked with chalk or notches. IMG:content-0706.png:[blocks in formation] 5. In paper - manuf., a pile of 144 sheets of handmade paper fresh from the mold, arranged alternately with pieces of felt, ready to be placed in the screw-pre ; a felt-post. When the felts are removed, the pile of paper sheets is termed a white post.-6. [ post, in arch., one of a pair of tru -posts set each at the same distance from the middle of the tru , as a support to the principal rafters and to suspend the tie-beam below. Two or three pairs of side posts are sometimes used in roofs of extended span: such posts are called primary and secondary side posts. To ki the postt. See ki . post1 (post), v. t. [ The attempts of which sort of man I can liken to nothing so properly as to those pretences to infallible cures which we daily see posted in every corner of the streets. IMG:content-0707.jpg:[graphic] IMG:content-0708.png:[blocks in formation] =Syn. To placard, advertise, announce, blaze abroad. post2 (post), n . [( a ) poste , m., a post, station, guard-house, employment, situation, military post, naval station, = Pg. pos to = It. pos to , station, post (> D. post = G. posten = Sw. Dan. post ), post us , m., a station. (b) horses), post (manner of traveling), stage, post poste , f., a post (establishment for posthouse, post-office, post-boy, mail-carrier, mail, also a military post, Sp. Pg. It. post a (> D. G. Sw. Dan. post ), post, post-office, mail, etc., ML.post a , f., a station, a fixed place on a road, post us , contr. of posit us , pp. of ponere , put, place, set, fix: see posit , position , and cf. post1 .] person or thing is stationed or fixed; a station 1. A fixed point or place; the place where some or position occupied: as, a post of observation; post a sentry at his post; specifically, the place where a body of troops is stationed; a military station. The waters rise everywhere upon the surface of the earth; which new post when they had once seized on they would never quit. T. Burnet, Theory of the Earth. The squadrons among which Regulus rode showed the greatest activity in retreating before the French, and were dislodged from one post and another which they occupied with perfect alacrity on their part. 4639 I had posted myself at his door the whole morning. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, xxx. To discharge cannon against an army in which a king is known to be posted is to approach pretty near to regicide. Macaulay . 2. To place in the post-office; transmit by post. Mrs. Fairfax had just written a letter which was waiting to be posted ; so I put on my bonnet and cloak and volunteered to carry it to Hay. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxxii. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, xii. Uncle Venner, who had studied the world at street-corners, and at other posts equally well adapted for just observation, was as ready to give out his wisdom as a town pump to give water. Hawthorne , Seven Gables, x. 2. The occupants, collectively, of a military station; a garrison.-3. Hence, a subdivision of the organization of veteran soldiers and 3. To send or convey by or as by means of post-horses. The swiftest harts have posted you by land; And winds of all the corners ki 'd your sails, To make your ve el nimble. Shak., Cymbeline, ii. 4. 27. sailors called the Grand Army of the Republic 4. In bookkeeping, to carry (accounts or items) (which see, under republic ).-4. An office or employment; a position of service, trust, or emolument; an appointment; a position. position. from the journal to the ledger; make the requisite entries in, as a ledger, for showing a true state of affairs: often followed by up.-5. To postaxial in mollusks, the postanal part or region of the body; in ascidians, the prolongation of the abdomen beyond the alimentary canal. The tail of a scorpion, or the telson of a king-crab, is a post abdomen. See cut under Pedipalpi. post abdominal (post-ab-dom'i-nal), a. [ post ablet (pos'ta-bl), a. [ An after-act; an act of the hip-bone. post-act (post'akt), п. done after a particular time. tant. IMG:content-0709.png:[blocks in formation] 6. One who travels through fixed stations on a given route, to carry me ages, letters, papers, etc.; a postman; hence, in general, a me enger. What good news hast thou brought me, gentle post? Beau. and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 6. He was also dispatching a Post lately for Spain; and the Post having received his Packet, and ki ed his Hands, he called him back. Howell, Letters, I. iii. 3. 7t. A post-horse. I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of po ibility; I have foundered nine score and odd posts . Shak., 2 Hen. IV., iv. 3. 40. 8. An established system for the conveyance of letters, especially a governmental system; the mail; the transmi ion of all the letters conveyed for the public at one time from one place to another; also, a post-office. He chides the tardine of ev'ry post , Pants to be told of battles won or lost. Cowper, Retirement, 1. 475. 9t. Haste; speed. Compare post - haste. As Ferardo went in post, so hee retourned in hast. Lyly, Euphues, Anat. of Wit, p. 82. The mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post. Shak., Rich. III., iii. 5. 73. 10. A size of writing-paper varying in dimensions from 224 × 174 inches to 19 × 154 inches, and in weight from 25 to 7 pounds per ream: so called because its original water-mark was a Shak ., 3 Hen. VI., iv. 8. 40. II. in trans. 1. To travel with post-horses; hence, to travel rapidly; travel with speed; hasten away. Thou must post to Nottingham, As fast as thou can dree. Robin Hood and Queen Katherine (Child's Ballads, V. 313). Riding as fast as our horses could trot (for we had fresh horses almost thrise or foure times a day), we posted from morning till night. Hakluyt's Voyages , I. 65. You sands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest. Milton , Sonnets, xiv. 2. In the manège, to rise and sink on the saddle in accordance with the motion of the horse, especially when trotting. Imp. Dict. post2 (post), adv. [An elliptical use of post2, n.] With post-horses; as a post; by post; hence, with speed; hastily: as, to ride post; to journey post. I am a knight that took my journey post Northward from London. Beau . and Fl . , Knight of Burning Pestle, iii. 4. Send him post on errands A you sand miles. B. Jonson , Devil is an A , i. 2. A journey of seventy miles to be taken post by you, at your age, alone, unattended! Jane Austen , North anger Abbey, xxviii. Post alonet, quite alone. Davies . Her self left also she deemed Post aloan, and soaly from woonted coompanye singled. Stan i hurst, Æneid, iv. 492. To talk postt, to speak hastily. 'Twere no good manners to speak hastily to a gentlewoman, to talk post (as they say) to his mistre . Shirley, Love in a Maze, i. 1.