POST, a. Suborned; hired to do what is wrong. [Not in use.]

POST, n. [L. postis, from positus, the given participle of pono, to place.]

Suborned; hired to do what is wrong. [Not in use.] – Sandys.

1. A piece of timber set upright, usually larger than a stake, and intended to support something else; as, the posts of a house; the posts of a door; the posts of a gate; the posts of a fence.
2. A military station; the place where a single soldier or a body of troops is stationed. The sentinel must not desert his post. The troops are ordered to defend the post. Hence,
3. The troops stationed at a particular place, or the ground they occupy. – Marshall. Encyc.
4. A public office or employment, that is, a fixed place or station. When vice prevails and impious men bear sway, / The post of honor is a private station. – Addison.
5. A messenger or a carrier of letters and papers; one that goes at stated times to convey the mail or dispatches. This sense also denotes fixedness, either from the practice of using relays of horses stationed at particular places, or of stationing men for carrying dispatches, or from the fixed stages where they were to be supplied with refreshments. [See Stage.] Xenophon informs us that Cyrus, king of Persia, established such stations or houses.
6. A seat or situation. – Burnet.
7. A sort of writing paper, such as is used for letters; letter paper.
8. An old game at cards.
9. In architecture and sculpture, certain ornaments shaped after the manner of rolls or wreathings. – Elmes. To ride post, to be employed to carry dispatches and papers, and as such carriers rode in haste, hence the phrase signifies to ride in haste, to pass with expedition. Post is used also adverbially, for swiftly, expeditiously, or expressly. Sent from Media post to Egypt. – Milton. Hence, to travel post, is to travel expeditiously by the use of fresh horses taken at certain stations. Knight of the post, a fellow suborned or hired to do a bad action.

A Latin preposition, signifying after. It is used in this sense in composition in many English words.

To travel with speed. And post o'er land and ocean without rest. – Milton.

1. To fix to a post; as, to post a notification.
2. To expose to public reproach by fixing the name to a post; to expose to opprobrium by some public action; as, to post a coward.
3. To advertise on a post or in a public place; as, to post a stray horse. – Laws of New England.
4. To set; to place; to station; as, to post troops on a hill, or in front or on the flank of an army.
5. In book-keeping, to carry accounts from the waste-book or journal to the ledger. To post off, to put off; to delay. [Not used.] – Shak.

1. A prefix signifying behind, back, after; as, postcommissure, postdot, postscript.
2. Hired to do what is wrong; suborned.
   
   
   [Obs.] Sir E. Sandys.
3. A piece of timber, metal, or other solid substance, fixed, or to be fixed, firmly in an upright position, especially when intended as a stay or support to something else; a pillar; as, a hitching post; a fence post; the posts of a house.
   
   

   They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses. Ex. xii. 7.

   Then by main force pulled up, and on his shoulders bore,
   The gates of Azza, post and massy bar. Milton.

   Unto his order he was a noble post. Chaucer.

   * Post, in the sense of an upright timber or strut, is used in composition, in such words as king-post, queen- post, crown-post, gatepost, etc.

4. The place at which anything is stopped, placed, or fixed; a station.
   
   
   Specifically: (a)
5. To attach to a post, a wall, or other usual place of affixing public notices] to placard; as, to post a notice; to post playbills.
   
   

   * Formerly, a large post was erected before the sheriff's office, or in some public place, upon which legal notices were displayed. This way of advertisement has not entirely gone of use.

6. To travel with post horses; figuratively, to travel in haste.
   
   
   "Post seedily to my lord your husband." Shak.

   And post o'er land and ocean without rest. Milton.

7. With post horses; hence, in haste; as, to travel post.
8. The doorpost of a victualer's shop or inn, on which were chalked the scores of customers; hence, a score; a debt.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   When God sends coin
   I will discharge your post. S. Rowlands.

   From pillar to post. See under Pillar. -- Knight of the post. See under Knight. -- Post hanger (Mach.), a bearing for a revolving shaft, adapted to be fastened to a post. -- Post hole, a hole in the ground to set the foot of a post in. -- Post mill, a form of windmill so constructed that the whole fabric rests on a vertical axis firmly fastened to the ground, and capable of being turned as the direction of the wind varies. -- Post and stall (Coal Mining), a mode of working in which pillars of coal are left to support the roof of the mine.

9. A messenger who goes from station; an express; especially, one who is employed by the government to carry letters and parcels regularly from one place to another; a letter carrier; a postman.
   
   

   In certain places there be always fresh posts, to carry that further which is brought unto them by the other. Abp. Abbot.

   I fear my Julia would not deign my lines,
   Receiving them from such a worthless post. Shak.

10. To hold up to public blame or reproach; to advertise opprobriously; to denounce by public proclamation; as, to post one for cowardice.
    
    

    On pain of being posted to your sorrow
    Fail not, at four, to meet me. Granville.

11. To rise and sink in the saddle, in accordance with the motion of the horse, esp. in trotting.
    
    
    [Eng.]
12. An established conveyance for letters from one place or station to another; especially, the governmental system in any country for carrying and distributing letters and parcels; the post office; the mail; hence, the carriage by which the mail is transported.
    
    

    I send you the fair copy of the poem on dullness, which I should not care to hazard by the common post. Pope.

13. To enter (a name) on a list, as for service, promotion, or the like.
14. Haste or speed, like that of a messenger or mail carrier.
    
    
    [Obs.] "In post he came." Shak.
15. To assign to a station; to set; to place; as, to post a sentinel.
    
    
    "It might be to obtain a ship for a lieutenant, . . . or to get him posted." De Quincey.
16. One who has charge of a station, especially of a postal station.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    He held office of postmaster, or, as it was then called, post, for several years. Palfrey.

17. To carry, as an account, from the journal to the ledger; as, to post an account; to transfer, as accounts, to the ledger.
    
    

    You have not posted your books these ten years. Arbuthnot.

18. A station, office, or position of service, trust, or emolument; as, the post of duty; the post of danger.
    
    

    The post of honor is a private station. Addison.

19. To place in the care of the post; to mail; as, to post a letter.
20. A size of printing and writing paper. See the Table under Paper.
    
    

    Post and pair, an old game at cards, in which each player a hand of three cards. B. Jonson. -- Post bag, a mail bag. -- Post bill, a bill of letters mailed by a postmaster. -- Post chaise, or Post coach, a carriage usually with four wheels, for the conveyance of travelers who travel post. -- Post day, a day on which the mall arrives or departs. -- Post hackney, a hired post horse. Sir H. Wotton. -- Post horn, a horn, or trumpet, carried and blown by a carrier of the public mail, or by a coachman. -- Post horse, a horse stationed, intended, or used for the post. -- Post hour, hour for posting letters. Dickens. -- Post office. (a) An office under governmental superintendence, where letters, papers, and other mailable matter, are received and distributed; a place appointed for attending to all business connected with the mail. (b) The governmental system for forwarding mail matter. -- Postoffice order. See Money order, under Money. -- Post road, or Post route, a road or way over which the mail is carried. -- Post town. (a) A town in which post horses are kept. (b) A town in which a post office is established by law. -- To ride post, to ride, as a carrier of dispatches, from place to place; hence, to ride rapidly, with as little delay as possible. -- To travel post, to travel, as a post does, by relays of horses, or by keeping one carriage to which fresh horses are attached at each stopping place.

21. To inform; to give the news to; to make (one) acquainted with the details of a subject; -- often with up.
    
    

    Thoroughly posted up in the politics and literature of the day. Lond. Sat. Rev.

    To post off, to put off; to delay. [Obs.] "Why did I, venturously, post off so great a business?" Baxter. -- To post over, to hurry over. [Obs.] Fuller.