telegraph

«telegraph» in Mova's school dictionary: The telegraph was an old way of sending messages over… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a telegraph, the telegraph); verb (telegraph, telegraphs, telegraphed, telegraphing)

meaning for a pupil

1) The telegraph was an old way of sending messages over long distances along wires, using electric signals like Morse code. tree →

2) A telegraph pole is a tall wooden pole that holds up phone or electricity wires. tree →

3) To telegraph a message is to send it by telegraph. tree →

4) (informal) To telegraph something is to show clearly, without meaning to, what you are going to do. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history lessons the telegraph is an invention that let people send news fast before telephones. In science it shows electricity carrying signals. In sport, "he telegraphed his pass" means opponents could see it coming. Phrases: telegraph pole, telegraph wire, telegraph office.

examples

• The telegraph let people send messages across the country in minutes. tree →
• A bird sat on the telegraph pole. tree →
• Messages by telegraph were sent in Morse code. tree →
• The news was telegraphed to the city. tree →
• The goalkeeper saw the kick coming because the striker telegraphed it. tree →
• Each word cost money to send by telegraph. tree →
• The telegraph office was busy all day. tree →
• The car hit a telegraph pole in the storm. tree →
• Here and there, amidst the trees of the silent valley, stood poles which supported the wires of the electric telegraph. tree →

note

"Tele-" means far (telephone, television); "-graph" means writing. A message sent was a telegram. In Australia and NZ people also say "power pole"; in the US "telephone pole". Regular verb: telegraphed.

In the corpora

• The smell is «the fine filament, the telegraphic current» (a thin thread, like a telegraph wire's signal).
• The electric telegraph changed everything.
• Before the telegraph, a long message could travel only as fast as a person, horse or ship could carry it.
• The electric telegraph sent messages as pulses of electric current along wires.
• From 1866 a telegraph cable under the Atlantic Ocean joined Europe and North America.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «telegraph» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.