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  • general post office
    general post office
    noun
    (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. G.P.O., GPO
  • General Post Office
    General Post Office
    noun
    (in Britain until 1969) the department of the central Government that provided postal and telephone services
Synonyms

general post office

American  

noun

  1. (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. G.P.O., GPO


General Post Office British  

noun

  1. (in Britain until 1969) the department of the central Government that provided postal and telephone services

  2. the main post office in a locality

"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

Etymology

Origin of general post office

First recorded in 1650–60


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:

For 30 years, he was a United States Postal Service employee, toiling mostly in the vast mail-sorting room beyond the imposing columns of what was New York City’s general post office in Midtown Manhattan.

From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2022

The hall occupies what was once a mail-sorting room in the city’s general post office.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 25, 2021

Another 500 occupied the general post office, 200 moved into the Civic Art Gallery and there they stayed one month.

From Time Magazine Archive

As an official of the general post office in London, he was subject to the orders of the postmaster general and to no other authority whatever.

From The History of the Post Office in British North America by Sir William Smith

A number of post offices had been opened in Upper Canada and the impression in the general post office was that they were unprofitable.

From The History of the Post Office in British North America by Sir William Smith

It turned out to be the Fullerton Hotel, which first opened in 1928 as the General Post Office.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

She soon went to work for the General Post Office, which ran Britain’s telephone system, and was trained as a switchboard operator.

From Seattle Times ● May 30, 2024

First: It converts what used to be a mail-sorting hall inside the James A. Farley Building, formerly the General Post Office, across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station.

From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2021

Nearby is the General Post Office, where, shortly before the 1916 Easter Rising, Patrick Pearse stood outside its doors and read the impassioned Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 14, 2019

“Not only is the General Post Office a handsome building, it is a model of brisk efficiency as well,” she thought.

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

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