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night letter

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noun
  1. former name of overnight telegram. Abbreviation: NL

Origin of night letter

First recorded in 1910–15
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for night letter

Historical Examples

  • Listen: this morning Colonel-daddy got a night-letter from Billy Starbuck.

    The Real Man

    Francis Lynde

  • How much does civilization owe the telephone, the night-letter, the fast mail and two-cent postage?

    The Fiction Factory

    John Milton Edwards

  • Gene Beavers received a night-letter from Doctor Winslow on the following day, and it contained its full quota of words.

British Dictionary definitions for night letter

night letter

noun
  1. (formerly, in the US and Canada) a telegram sent for delivery the next day at a cheaper rate than a regular telegram
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012