express

comparative more express · superlative most express

1. not comparableMoving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.

   Synonyms: fast, crack

2. comparableSpecific or precise; directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied.

   This book cannot be copied without the express permission of the publisher.

   2 more examples

   I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.

   Beginning with the next issue, which will be the January, 1950, issue, this magazine will be published on the first of every month. This step has been taken at the express wish of readers despite the present paper and production difficulties.

   1949 November and December, “Return to Monthly Publication”, in Railway Magazine, page 351

   Synonyms: explicit, plain, clear, direct, explicit, monosemic, monosemous, patent · Antonyms: implied

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.

   1 more example

   Soon as the potion works, their human countenance, / The express resemblance of the gods, is changed / Into some brutish form, of wolf, or bear, / Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, / All other parts remaining as they were[…]

   1634, John Milton, edited by Homer Sprague, The Mask of Comus, New York: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co., published 1876, page 253

4. postpositionalbusinessProviding a more limited but presumably faster service than a full or complete dealer of the same kind or type.

   Tesco Express

   1 more example

   McDonald's Express

plural expresses

1. A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly, either on a regular schedule or as a special or excursion. Express trains often pass through stations along the way without stopping at them.

   I took the express into town.

   4 more examples

   Your attention please. Train 4715 is now boarding on track 3, section B. This train is an express. This train does not stop at Foo, Bar, or Fubar stations.

   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.

   1931, Francis Beeding, “1/1”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps

   Except for the mid-winter period, when the 11.30 a.m. from Paddington and its opposite number will be withdrawn - Torquay now has seven daily expresses to and from Paddington as compared with five down and six up previously.

   1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 590

   This is also a TransPennine Express service which makes a mockery of the word 'express'.

   2023 November 1, Philip Haigh, “TPE must choose the right route to a brighter future”, in RAIL, number 995, page 56

   Antonyms: local, stopper

   1. Philippineschiefly Metro Manilaa public utility vehicle, typically a jeepney, that traverses through an expressway

      Antonyms: local, stopper

2. A service that allows mail or money to be sent rapidly from one destination to another.
3. An express rifle.

   "Give me my express," I said, laying down the Winchester, and he handed it to me cocked.

   1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

4. obsoleteA clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration.

   And this [holy communion] being the great myſtery of Chriſtianity, and the onely remanent expreſſe of Chriſts ſacrifice on earth, it is moſt conſonant to the Analogy of the myſtery, that this commemorative ſacrifice be preſented by perſons as ſeparate, and diſtinct in our miniſtery, […]

   1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Section V”, in Clerus Domini: or, A Discourse of the Divine Institution, Necessity, Sacrednesse, and Separation of the Office Ministerial. […], London: […] R[ichard] Royston […], published 1655, →OCLC, paragraph 5, page 30

5. A messenger sent on a special errand; a courier.

   I learned, to my inexpressible terror, that at two o'clock, the day before, an express had been sent to Geraldine by Mr Bergasse, with a letter, which he had received from the Hotel de Romagnecourt.

   1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 381

6. An express office.

   She charged him […] to ask at the express if anything came up from town.

   1873, Edward Everett Hale, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

7. That which is sent by an express messenger or message.

   popular captations, which some men use in their Speeches, and Expresses

   1648, attributed to Charles I of England, Εἰκὼν Βασιλική [Eikōn Basilikē = Royal Portrait]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie, in His Solitvdes and Svfferings

   2 more examples

   “5th, If an express requires extraordinary despatch, the man-mountain shall be obliged to carry, in his pocket, the messenger and horse a six days journey, once in every moon, and return the said messenger back (if so required) safe to our imperial presence.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput)

   So much was Sir Edward delighted that he sent an express to inform Lord Meersbrook of this great act of friendship, in order that he might be the more easy on their account;...

   1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 132

1. Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.

   The train runs express to 96 St.

present singular third person expresses · participle present expressing · participle past expressed · past expressed

1. transitiveTo convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.

   Words cannot express the love I feel for him.

   3 more examples

   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.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Services during Yom Kippur are held continuously through the day and include readings from the Torah and the reciting of prayers expressing regret or asking for forgiveness.

   2019 October 8, Christina Maxouris, Doug Criss, “Everything you wanted to know about Yom Kippur”, in CNN, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2020

   Obama expresses empathy for graduates who might be feeling lost or overwhelmed, adding she, too, feels those emotions.

   2020 June 7, Kate Bennett, “Michelle Obama to 2020 graduates: ‘For those of you who feel invisible: Please know that your story matters’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 06 Oct 2022

   Synonyms: outspeak, utter, articulate, common, communicate, convey, share, make known

2. transitiveTo press, squeeze out (especially said of milk).

   They don’t have teats, so the mothers express their milk onto their bellies for their young to feed.

   2018 March 15, Kelsey Munroe, “Platypus milk: unlikely weapon in fight against superbugs”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2018

   2 more examples

   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 […]

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 13”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   It contained many cysts which were filled with sagolike granules that could be expressed under pressure.

   1949, United States Naval Medical Bulletin, volume 49, number 1, page 61

3. biochemistryTo translate messenger RNA into protein.
4. biochemistryTo transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.

   When a cell “expresses” a gene, it translates the DNA first into a signature messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence and subsequently into a chain of amino acids that forms a protein.

   2015 November 28, Ferris Jabr, “How Humans Ended Up With Freakishly Huge Brains”, in WIRED, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2016

plural expresses

1. obsoleteThe action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression.

   Whereby they discoursed in silence, and were intuitively understood from the theory of their expresses.

   1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20

2. obsoleteA specific statement or instruction.

   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.

   1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5