post nightn.
/ˈpəʊs(t)nʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈpoʊs(t)ˌnaɪt/ Now historical and rare.
A night on which letters are dispatched.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > postal services > [noun] > time of post
post day1645
post time1650
post night1657
post hour1666
post-morning1666
1657 T. Burton Diary (1828) I. 322 I am much troubled that a post-night should pass, before you come to a resolution in this business.
1686 London Gaz. No. 2121/4 There goes a Post every Monday Night (besides the General Post-Nights) from the General Post-Office in London, to Lewis in Sussex.
1758 in T. B. Howell State Trials (1813) XIX. 1369 I have often received from the prisoner at the bar letters of a post-night to carry to the office in Lombard-street.
1763 J. Boswell Let. 25 Sept. in F. A. Pottle Boswell in Holland (1952) 32 My last was written somewhat in a hurry, as I had put it off till the post-night.
1820 C. Brown Let. 21 Dec. in J. Keats Lett. (1947) 528 As to-morrow is post night, you shall have the answer in due course.
1937 Times 7 Jan. 13/5 The Evening Mail, published thrice weekly, on post nights, came to grief after some eighty years.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1657