express

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English[edit]

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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)

  1. (not comparable) Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.
  2. (comparable) Specific or precise; directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied.
    I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.
    This book cannot be copied without the express permission of the publisher.
  3. 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.
    • Milton
      Their human countenance / The express resemblance of the gods.
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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)

  1. A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly.
    I took the express into town.
    • 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.
  2. An express rifle.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines to this entry?)
  3. (obsolete) A clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration.
    • Jeremy Taylor
      the only remanent express of Christ's sacrifice on earth
  4. A messenger sent on a special errand; a courier.
  5. An express office.
    • E. E. Hale
      She charged him […] to ask at the express if anything came up from town.
  6. That which is sent by an express messenger or message.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Eikon Basilike to this entry?)
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

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)

  1. ​ (transitive) To convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, The Celebrity:
      We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith. As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.
    Words cannot express the love I feel for him.
  2. (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 [...].
  3. (biochemistry) To translate messenger RNA into protein.
  4. (biochemistry) To transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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
Related terms[edit]

Noun[edit]

express (plural expresses)

  1. (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.
  2. (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.
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