telegraph

noun

1. 1

   Synonym of telegraphy, any process for transmitting arbitrarily long messages over a long distance using a symbolic code.

   This strict sense of telegraph developed from French usage for Napoleon's overland semaphore network but rather arbitrarily excludes similar Chinese and other signalling networks.

2. 2

   historicalThe electrical device gradually developed in the early 19th century to transmit messages (telegrams) using Morse code; the entire system used to transmit its messages including overhead lines and transoceanic cables.

   The first message transmitted by telegraph in the United States was WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.

   The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He[…]played a lone hand,[…]. Most lone wolves had a moll at any rate—women were their ruin—but if the Bat had a moll, not even the grapevine telegraph could locate her.

   “Despite the current furore over hacking, which is only a modern term for bugging, eavesdropping, signals intercept, listening-in, tapping, monitoring, there has never been guaranteed privacy since the earliest optical telegraphs to today’s internet,” Packer says. “There never was and never will be privacy.”

3. 3

   A visible or audible cue that indicates to an opponent the action that a character is about to take.

verb

1. 1

   To use a telegraph; to send a message by telegraph.

   Whenever this portent occurs, my steward telegraphs to me, that I, as head of the family, be not unsteeled against the shock of a bereavement […]

   In "The Boscombe Valley Mystery," Sherlock Holmes telegraphs Watson: "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from the West of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. […]."

2. 2

   figurativeTo clearly communicate to another nonverbally (whether by gesture, a change in attitude, or any other sign), and especially unintentionally.

   Her frown telegraphed her displeasure.

   He took a jab and telegraphed his punch so loudly that I was able to land a solid right hand to his stomach.

   The trip was the latest step in a broader transformation of Mr. Putin that has become apparent in recent weeks. He is telegraphing a shift away from wartime crisis mode back toward the aura of a calm, paternalistic leader shielding Russians from the dangers of the world.

   For weeks, Ukrainian officials had telegraphed plans for a planned counterattack in the southern Kherson region, but instead the main focus of this week’s counterattack has been Kharkiv in the north-east, taking everyone, including apparently the Russians, by surprise.

Forms

plural

telegraphs

past tense

telegraphed

past participle

telegraphed

present participle

telegraphing

third person singular

telegraphs