| 释义 |
▪ I. postage1|ˈpəʊstɪdʒ|
[f. post n.2 + -age.]
I. Of letters, etc.
1. The carriage or conveyance of letters, etc., by post. Now rare.
1590Acts Privy Council XIX. 164 Sir John Norreis, knight,..hath made suit unto us to have certein allowaunces for howsrent, howshold stuff, postage and for transportacion booth in his going and coming [to Ireland]. 1609Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 5 Who weekely spends fiue or six Crownes for postage of letters onely. 1617in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1849) I. 465 These little pamphlets I send you for that they be of so easy postage. 1653Reg. Council State XVI. 458 In the mannageing of the business of the postage of Letters. 1693New Hampsh. Prov. Papers (1868) II. 100 How much a Letter [you will be pleased to allow] for postage of a single Letter from Piscataqua to Boston.
†2. The postal service generally; a postal service between particular points. Obs.
1650Jrnls. Ho. Comm. 21 Mar. 385 By direction and authority of the Parliament, I erected postages for the service of the State. 1657Ibid. 28 May 553/1 An Act for the Settling the Postage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 1707Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. iii. (ed. 22) 442 The Post-Master-General..hath annex'd, and appropriated the Market-Towns of England so well to the respective Postages, that there is no considerable Market-Town, but hath an easie and certain Conveyance for the Letters thereof, to and from the said grand Office [in London]. 1749W. Douglas Summary I. 466 From Piscataqua or Portsmouth, to Philadelphia, is a regular postage. 1779Hervey Naval Hist. II. 201 In the year 1653 the postage in England, Scotland, and Ireland, was farmed for ten thousand pounds yearly.
3. The amount charged for carrying a letter or postal packet; originally, that paid to a post messenger; hence, the charge made by the post-office department for the conveyance of a letter or packet, now usually prepaid by means of a postage stamp or stamps.
1654Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. viii. 119 For want of ready money, they scor'd upon his back, the postage. 1656Jrnls. Ho. Comm. 429/2 That the Post Letters, directed to the several Members of this House,..be free from Postage, as formerly. That the Letters of the several Members of this House that go to the several Parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, be also free from Postage. 1692T. Neale Patent in Hist. Suffolk, Mass. (1894) II. 504 State letters, which are usually carried postage free here in England. 1787M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 374 To forward the packets to Colonel Platt, as early as may be, free of postage. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 388 The postage increased in proportion to the weight of the packet. 1891Phil Penny Post. Jubilee 31 The postage to Aberdeen from Edinburgh was in 1777 3d...to Linlithgow 1d.
II. Of passengers.
†4.
a. Travelling by means of post-horses; posting; also transf. a rapid journey or passage. Obs.
1603in 13th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. iv. 127 The continuance thereof hath drawn with it from this poore town the postage and recourse of merchants..travelling to the sea coast... We pray that it would please you to erect a postage here and recommend unto you..James Apleton, to be the postmaster. 1627–77Feltham Resolves ii. lvii. 277 All the transient..pleasures that we fondly smack after in this postage of life in this world. 1808Cobbett's Wkly. Pol. Reg. XIII. No. 25. 968 The refusal of a licence [by] the magistrates, to any innkeeper raising the price of postage.
†b. The charge for hire of a post-horse. Obs.
1660Act 12 Chas. II, c. 35 §5 Three pence.. for each Horses hire or postage for every English mile.
†5. A station at which horses are changed; a posting house. Obs.
1603[see sense 4].
III. 6. attrib. and Comb.: postage-book: see quot.; postage currency, a paper currency of denominations less than a dollar, bearing a design composed of one or more postage stamps, issued in the U.S. in 1862, to take the place of actual postage stamps, which had for some time been used instead of silver coins, when these became scarce during the Civil War: also called postal currency; postage envelope: see quot.; postage label, early official name for a postage stamp; so postage label stamp; postage meter N. Amer. = franking machine; hence postage-metered adj.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Postage-book, a memorandum-book in an office of postal expenditure.
1862Inscription on U.S. 5 cents bill, *Postage Currency, Furnished only by the Assistant Treasurers and designated Depositaries of the U.S. U.S. Postage, Five Cents. Back. Act approved July 17, 1862. 1863U.S. Stat. c. 73 §4 Be it further enacted, That in lieu of postage stamps for fractional currency, and of fractional notes, commonly called postage currency,..the Secretary of the Treasury may issue fractional notes of like amounts. 1889Century Dict. s.v. Currency, [On July 17, 1862], Congress authorized an issue of circulating notes called postage currency, imitating in style the stamps that had previously been used at great inconvenience, in denominations of 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents. These were superseded by the fractional currency authorized March 3d, 1863, in denominations of 3, 5, 15, 25, and 50 cents.
1860Murray's London 57 (Hoppe) Others [presses] are employed in stamping the embossed medallion of the Queen on *postage envelopes.
1852(title) Report from the Select Committee on *Postage Label Stamps;..Minutes of Evidence. Ibid. 1 Are you [H. Archer] the Inventor and Patentee of a plan for perforating the sheets of Postage Labels, so as to effect their instant separation without the aid of any cutting instrument? Ibid. 20 To engrave, print, gum, and perforate the postage label stamps. Ibid., For engraving, printing, and gumming the postage label sheets.
1927,1961*Postage meter [see franking machine]. 1972Times 18 May 27/1 Pitney Bowes..claims to be the world's largest producer and marketer of postage meters and mailing machines. Ibid., It was 50 years ago that Walter H. Wheeler sold the British Post Office on the idea of postage metered mail. 1974P. Gzowski Bk. about This Country 212 I'm sort of in the same position as the stamp-licker watching a postage meter being brought in the door.
▪ II. postage2 rare.|ˈpəʊstɪdʒ|
[f. post n.1 + -age.]
The mooring of ships to posts in a harbour; the dues charged for this.
1868Rep. Trial in Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 13 Mar., Nothing more than postage was paid. There were three posts as shown in the map of 1738, and three or more posts along the Parlor, which had now been removed, but to which ships were moored. |