send
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause, permit, or enable to go.
to send a messenger; They sent their son to college.
- Antonyms:
- receive
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to cause to be conveyed or transmitted to a destination.
to send a letter.
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to order, direct, compel, or force to go.
The president sent troops to Asia.
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to direct, propel, or deliver to a particular point, position, condition, or direction.
to send a punch to the jaw; The punch sent the fighter reeling.
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to emit, discharge, or utter (usually followed by off, out, orthrough ).
The lion sent a roar through the jungle.
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to cause to occur or befall.
The people beseeched Heaven to send peace to their war-torn village.
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Electricity.
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to transmit (a signal).
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to transmit (an electromagnetic wave or the like) in the form of pulses.
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Slang. to delight or excite.
Frank Sinatra's records used to send her.
verb (used without object)
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to dispatch a messenger, agent, message, etc.
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Electricity. to transmit a signal.
The ship's radio sends on a special band of frequencies.
verb phrase
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send out
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to distribute; issue.
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to send on the way; dispatch.
They sent out their final shipment last week.
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to order delivery.
We sent out for coffee.
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send in to cause to be dispatched or delivered to a destination.
Send in your contest entries to this station.
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send off to cause to depart or to be conveyed from oneself; dispatch; dismiss.
His teacher sent him off to the principal's office.
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send forth
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to produce; bear; yield.
plants sending forth new leaves.
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to dispatch out of a country as an export.
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to issue, as a publication.
They have sent forth a report to the stockholders.
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to emit or discharge.
The flowers sent forth a sweet odor.
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send for to request the coming or delivery of; summon.
If her temperature goes up, send for the doctor.
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send down to expel, especially from Oxford or Cambridge.
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send up
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to release or cause to go upward; let out.
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Informal. to sentence or send to prison.
He was convicted and sent up for life.
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to expose the flaws or foibles of through parody, burlesque, caricature, lampoon, or other forms of satire.
The new movie sends up merchants who commercialize Christmas.
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idioms
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send packing, to dismiss curtly; send away in disgrace.
The cashier was stealing, so we sent him packing.
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send round, to circulate or dispatch widely.
Word was sent round about his illness.
verb (used without object)
verb
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(tr) to cause or order (a person or thing) to be taken, directed, or transmitted to another place
to send a letter
she sent the salesman away
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to dispatch a request or command (for something or to do something)
he sent for a bottle of wine
he sent to his son to come home
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(tr) to direct or cause to go to a place or point
his blow sent the champion to the floor
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(tr) to bring to a state or condition
this noise will send me mad
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(tr; often foll by forth, out, etc) to cause to issue; emit
his cooking sent forth a lovely smell from the kitchen
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(tr) to cause to happen or come
misery sent by fate
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to transmit (a message) by radio, esp in the form of pulses
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slang (tr) to move to excitement or rapture
this music really sends me
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to dismiss or get rid of someone
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to dismiss or get rid of (someone) peremptorily
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of send
First recorded before 900; Middle English senden, Old English sendan; cognate with German senden, Gothic sandjan; akin to Old English sīth “journey,” sand “message, messenger”
Explanation
When you get something to end up at a destination, you send it. You can send an email, send a package, or even send a student to the dean's office. You can send a message in a letter or in an email, or you can send a rocket up into the air. You can also send a person somewhere: "My parents used to send me to camp every summer." If you kick someone out, you send them packing: "If my roommate whistles that song one more time, I swear I'll send her packing." And if you're really irritated, you might even send them flying, or knock them down.
Vocabulary lists containing send
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There’s a switch just below the car that would send the trolley onto one of two tracks.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026
Edwards said she was asking MPs to send the same law "back to the House of Lords so that they can finish what they started".
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Treasury raised the size of its planned buyback operation for Treasurys maturing in 10 to 20 years to $6 billion, triple the typical amount, but not enough to send yields lower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
One channel is FR-Alert, which can send notifications to mobile phones in the threatened area.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
If someone showed particular interest in a piece and I needed to move on to another guest, I’d send them over to talk to Mr. Lew—and Ba, once he joined us freshly washed and groomed.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Over just two weeks in April 2026, Anthropic found more than 4,700 different Claude-powered AI characters chatting with at least 25,000 real users, sending about 2.36 million messages in total.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
The new tool, which can perform tasks such as shopping and sending email, is Meta’s latest attempt to monetize its massive AI investments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Odegaard scored after a perfectly timed, intelligent run into the box that allowed him to step on to Kai Havertz's clever dummy before sending an emphatic finish past Chelsea keeper Emiliano Martinez.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
After sending it in, McGregor asked him to redo the tape, offering a few notes, including that he needed to physically be more still.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The path swerves toward the lake, and the wind rises, blowing my fur flat against my skin, sending shivers over the whole of me.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
She knew kids risked being sent home when classes resumed in late August — a scenario that would disrupt not just their learning but create a logistical nightmare for working families.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026
Napoleon’s invasion failed, but the experts he sent in—draftsmen, scientists, archaeologists—found tantalizing glimpses of ancient wonders such as the Rosetta Stone and the Luxor obelisk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
And after De Paula had worked a full count, swinging at a pair of fastballs and fouling off the second, he sent a slider to right field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
It was sent to the White House 0400 on 12 September, just under 20 hours from when the first aircraft struck the World Trade Center in New York.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
After polishing off the platter of food, and then the date-filled ma’amoul cookies that Zara’s mom also sent, we busy ourselves for the rest of the day, organizing and cleaning everything everywhere.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
