| 释义 |
drop-letter U.S.
1. A letter posted in any place merely for local delivery (formerly called box-letter); a ‘local’ letter.
Originally applied to letters sent from a distant place by some other mode of conveyance, and ‘dropped’ into the post office box at the place of destination for delivery there.
[1841Rep. Postmaster-General (U.S.) 452 Letters have frequently been dropped into this [Philadelphia] office, from Boston, New York [etc.], for deliverance by our carriers. ]1844Ibid. 688 ‘Drop-letters’..This is a class of letters which are usually sent from one place to another by private conveyance, and are ‘dropped’ or deposited in the post-office for delivery. 1845(Mar. 3) U.S. Statutes at Large V. 733 Drop letters, or letters placed in any post-office, not for transmission by mail, but for delivery only. [The term drop matter is common in American post offices, meaning matter for local delivery, without passing from one post-office to another.]
2. (See quots.) Cf. drop-initial s.v. drop-.
1894Amer. Dict. Printing 149/1 Drop letters, two-line letters, the top being as high as the top of a line of an advertisement or of reading matter, the remainder dropping down to the next line. This expression is not used in America, the equivalent being a two-line letter. 1950Dict. Printing Terms (Porte Publ. Co.) (ed. 5) 53/2 Drop-letter, a large letter used for ornamentation at the beginning of a chapter or article. |