Definition of "mail"

What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale; / A brydelynge caste for that is in thy male!

1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte

Open the Males, yet guard the treaſure ſure.Lay out our golden wedges to the view,That their reflexions may amaze the Perſeans.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)

The following are the hours at which the letter-box of this office is closed for making up the several mails, and the hours at which each mail is despatched: ¶ […]

1823, The stranger in Liverpool; or, An historical and descriptive view of the town of Liverpool and its environs, Seventh Edition, T. Kaye, page 96

If he retains the account, and permits several mails to pass without objecting to it, he will be held to have admitted its correctness.

1887, John Houston Merrill (editor), The American and English Encyclopædia of Law, Volume I, Edward Thompson, p.121

The transfer by tender of some 1,300 mail bags was effected smartly, and the "Ocean Mails Special" train was ready at 9.19 a.m.

1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, page 202

All trains stop at all stations, with the exception of a few "local" stations near Mombasa and an odd flag stop or two usually missed by the mails.

1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 263

On the morning after the one-day strike, October 4, one of the Type 4s on crew-training, No. D169, was appropriated to head the 3 a.m. mail to Hull, as no steam locomotive had been lit up and the usual Hull Type 3 was not available; [...].

1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, pages 422, 425

As he passed though the station, he slowed to yell to the signalman, Frank 'Sailor' Bridges: "Sailor - have you anything between here and Fordham? Where's the mail?" Gimbert knew the mail train was due, and he didn't want to endanger another train with his burning bomb wagon.

2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42

“Fetch me the little private mail with the padlocks, that I recommended to your particular charge — d'ye hear?”

1819, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […]

There has been a crackdown on non-ARPA use of a local ARPA gateway, so I am reluctant to attempt to mail the file to ARPA sites.

1983, Donn Seeley, “Source for 'Grab'”, in net.unix-wizards (Usenet)

Since .mp3's are so big (well for me with a 33.6kp/s connection they are anyway) maybe you should offer on your site to mail the file to people who want it, and have them request it, thus saving your web space, your upload time and their download time […]

1998, Michael Tomsett, “Re: Multiple postings?”, in alt.music.manics (Usenet)

If you mail an attachment from one mail client then it does not matter if the receiver uses a different mail client. The mail you send should be able to be read from their mail client.

2003, Chrissy, “Re: Send mail with attachment”, in microsoft.public.excel.programming (Usenet)

I was horrified but my data was OK. Then, it saw it open my e-mail package and start to mail my friends. I turned the power off.

2000, Carlton Alton Deltree, “Whoever did this sucks...”, in alt.comp.virus (Usenet)

'Yes, at Quantico. She was so excited by it, she sent all those emails, you remember I told you about it -' 'Yes, she mailed me from there too.'

2002, Jessica Mann, The voice from the grave, page 189

He mailed me and said he had managed to hack into my email accounts.

2011, Rose Budworth-Levine, Intimate Encounters, page 41

The knight is laid in his mail, only the hands and face being bare.

1853, John Ruskin, “Roman Renaissance”, in The Stones of Venice, volume III (The Fall), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], § LVII, page 73

"That's funny looking mail, Sire," said Eustace."Aye, lad," said Tirian. "No Narnian dwarf smithied that. […]

1956, C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle

We […] strip the lobster of his scarlet mail.

1716, John Gay, Epistle to the Earl of Burlington

There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, / And metal wrought like fishes' mail, / Buckler and corslet, axe and sword, / And shining spears were laid in hoard.

1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A Journey in the Dark”, in The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published September 1973, page 412

[T]he moorish-fly: made with the body of duskish wool; and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake.

1676, Izaak Walton, “[The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation: Part I […].] Fovrth Day.”, in Richard Le Gallienne, editor, The Compleat Angler, 5th edition, London; New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, published 1897, page 116, page 116