post¹ / pōst/ • n. a long, sturdy piece of timber or metal set upright in the ground and used to support something or as a marker: follow the blue posts until the track meets a forestry road. ∎  a goalpost: Robertson, at the near post, headed wide. ∎  (the post) a starting post or winning post. • v. [tr.] (often be posted) display (a notice) in a public place: a curt notice had been posted on the door the exam results were posted this morning. ∎  announce or publish (something, esp. a financial result): the company posted a $460,000 loss. ∎  (of a player or team) achieve or record (a particular score or result): Smith and Lamb posted a century partnership. ∎  [tr.] publish the name of (a member of the armed forces) as missing or dead: a whole troop had been posted missing. ∎  Comput. make (information) available on the Internet. ∎  put notices on or in: we have posted all the bars. PHRASAL VERBS: post up Basketball play in a position near the basket, along the side of the key. post² • n. 1. chiefly Brit. the official service or system that delivers letters and parcels: winners will be notified by post the tickets are in the post. ∎  letters and parcels delivered: she was opening her post. ∎  [in sing.] a single collection or delivery of letters or parcels: entries must be received no later than first post on Friday, June 14th. ∎  used in names of newspapers: the Washington Post. 2. hist. one of a series of couriers who carried mail on horseback between fixed stages. ∎ archaic a person or vehicle that carries mail. • v. 1. [tr.] chiefly Brit. send (a letter or parcel) via the postal system: I've just been to post a letter post off your order form today. 2. [tr.] (in bookkeeping) enter (an item) in a ledger: post the transaction in the second column. ∎  complete (a ledger) in this way. 3. [intr.] hist. travel with relays of horses: we posted in an open carriage. ∎  archaic travel with haste; hurry: he comes posting up the street. • adv. archaic with haste: come now, come post. PHRASES: keep someone posted keep someone informed of the latest developments or news. post³ • n. 1. a position of paid employment; a job: he resigned from the post of foreign minister a teaching post. 2. a place where someone is on duty or where a particular activity is carried out: a worker asleep at his post a customs post. ∎  a place where a soldier, guard, or police officer is stationed or which they patrol: he gave the two armed men orders not to leave their posts a command post. ∎  a force stationed at a permanent position or camp; a garrison. ∎  a local group in an organization of military veterans. 3. Brit., hist. the status or rank of full-grade captain in the Royal Navy: Captain Miller was made post in 1796. • v. [tr.] (usu. be posted) send (someone) to a particular place to take up an appointment: he was posted to Washington as military attaché. ∎  station (someone, esp. a soldier, guard, or police officer) in a particular place: a guard was posted at the entrance.

post1 Latin, = ‘after’.
post-bellum occurring or existing after a war, in particular the American Civil War.
post-Impressionism the work or style of a varied group of late 19th-century and early 20th-century artists including Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne. They reacted against the naturalism of the Impressionists to explore colour, line, and form, and the emotional response of the artist, a concern which led to the development of expressionism.
post meridiem after midday; between noon and midnight; abbreviated as pm. The expression is first recorded in the mid 17th century.
post-mortem an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death; figuratively, an analysis or discussion of an event held soon after it has occurred, especially in order to determine why it was a failure. The use is recorded from the mid 19th century, and derives from the mid 18th-century use of the Latin phrase meaning literally ‘after death’.
post-traumatic stress disorder a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world.

Post-traumatic stress disorder was identified as a specific syndrome in the early 1970s; the term entered the general language in the 1980s, especially in relation to Vietnam War veterans suffering from stress-related illnesses.

post2 †men with horses stationed along a route to carry the king's ‘packet’ or other letters from stage to stage; †courier, postman; †mail-coach, packet-boat XVI; single dispatch of letters, the mail; short for post-office, public department having the conveyance of letters XVII; short for post-paper, size of writing-paper, orig. bearing as water-mark a postman's horn XVIII. — F. poste — It. posta — Rom. *posta, contr. of L. posita, fem. pp. of pōnere place (see POSIT). Used adv., with post-horses, with haste XVI; e.g. ride p., orig. in phr. ride in p.
Hence or — F. poster, post vb.2 XVI. postage carriage of letters XVI; charge for this XVII. postal (-AL1) XIX. — F. Comps. postcard XIX. post-haste †speed in travelling; adv. with all haste. XVI. postmaster¹ XVI, post office XVII.

post. Any vertical structural timber supporting a lintel or providing a firm point of lateral attachment, as in a gate or fence. The term is usually applied to a main vertical member in timber-framed construction or in roof-trusses. Types of post include:aisle-post: as arcade-post;arcade-post: post in an arcade, in the sense of a division in a timber-framed building consisting of a series or row of posts;crown-post: vertical timber on a tie-beam, or sometimes on a collar, supporting the crown-plate;king-post: vertical timber on a tie-beam or collar rising to the roof apex to support a ridge-piece: without a ridge-piece it is a king-strut;queen-post: one of two posts on a tie-beam supporting plates or purlins.

Bibliography

Alcock,, Barley,, Dixon,, & and Meeson (1996);
Sturgis et al. (1901–2)

post3 soldier's station XVI; position taken up by a body of soldiers; position of employment XVII; (naut.) position as full-grade captain XVIII. — F. poste — It. posto — Rom. *postum, contr. of popL. positum, pp. of pōnere place (cf. prec.).

post1 stout piece of timber set upright. OE. — L. postis, perh. f. por- PRO-1 + base of stāre STAND; prob. reinforced in ME. from OF. and MLG., MDu.
Hence post vb.1 affix to a post. XVII; whence poster bill or placard posted or displayed. XIX.

post2 post-haste with great speed or immediacy; from the direction ‘haste, post, haste’, formerly given on letters; in this direction, post means the courier who was carrying the letters.

post6 L. prep. & adv., earlier poste, *posti, ‘after’; current in phrases such as p. bellum after the war. p. meridiem after midday, post partum after childbirth.

Post

a batch or pile; letters or mail, collectively.

Examples : post of ore (for smelting at one time); of paper (a pile of four to eight quires of handmade paper).

post5 (esp in first, last p.) bugle-call warning of the hour for retiring for the night. XIX. prob. short for call to post or the like (POST3, first sense).

post4 pile of hand-made paper fresh from the mould. XVIII. — G. posten parcel, batch, lot — It. posto POST3.

post •boast, coast, ghost, host, most, oast, post, roast, toast •backmost • headmost • leftmost •endmost • midmost • hindmost •rightmost • topmost • foremost •almost • northernmost • downmost •outmost • southernmost • upmost •utmost • rearmost • lowermost •undermost • innermost • uppermost •aftermost •centremost (US centermost) •westernmost • easternmost •bottommost • outermost • uttermost •nethermost • furthermost •lamp post • bedpost • gatepost •Freepost • impost • guidepost •milepost • signpost • doorpost •outpost • goalpost • newel post •fingerpost • sternpost

POST (pəʊst) Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
• point-of-sales terminal (in supermarkets, etc.)
• Computing power-on self test