express
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Etymology 1 [edit]
From French exprès, from Latin expressus, past participle of exprimere (see Etymology 2, below).
Adjective [edit]
express (comparative more express, superlative most express)
- (not comparable) Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.
- 1931, Francis Beeding, chapter 1/1, Death Walks in Eastrepps[1]:
- The train was moving less fast through the summer night. The swift express had changed into something almost a parliamentary, had stopped three times since Norwich, and now, at long last, was approaching Banton.
- 1931, Francis Beeding, chapter 1/1, Death Walks in Eastrepps[1]:
- (comparable) Specific or precise.
- I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.
- Truly depicted; exactly resembling.
- In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance.
Synonyms [edit]
Antonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
moving or operating quickly
specific or precise
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truly depicted, exactly resembling
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Noun [edit]
express (plural expresses)
- A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly.
- I took the express into town.
- An express rifle.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of H. Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines to this entry?)
Synonyms [edit]
- (of a train): fast train
Antonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
quick mode of transportation
Etymology 2 [edit]
From Old French espresser, expresser, from frequentative form of Latin exprimere.
Verb [edit]
express (third-person singular simple present expresses, present participle expressing, simple past and past participle expressed)
- (transitive) To convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.
- Words cannot express the love I feel for him.
- (transitive) To press, squeeze out (especially said of milk).
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 13
- The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl [...].
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 13
- (biochemistry) To translate messenger RNA into protein.
- (biochemistry) To transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to convey meaning
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to excrete or cause to excrete
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
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Related terms [edit]
Noun [edit]
express (plural expresses)
- (obsolete) The action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression.
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20:
- Whereby they discoursed in silence, and were intuitively understood from the theory of their expresses.
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20:
- (obsolete) A specific statement or instruction.
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:
- This Gentleman [...] caused a man to go down no less than a hundred fathom, with express to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it groweth.
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5: