overland mail
Americannoun
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a government mail service, started in 1848, for sending mail from the Mississippi to the Far West.
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(initial capital letters) a stagecoach line, established in 1858, linking Memphis, St. Louis, and San Francisco, which was then paid by the government to carry U.S. mail to the Far West. With various changes in ownership, name, and routes it continued until the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.
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.
Helped by his oldtime experience as an overland mail contractor.
From Time Magazine Archive
Upon the eighteenth of March the Mail Steamer came into Hong-Kong, with the overland mail.
From Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas by Macaulay, W. Hastings
You will receive this at the same time as you do the other, since it will arrive at Bombay in time to go by the same overland mail.
From Campaign of the Indus by Holdsworth, T.W.E.
We have no arrivals to-day, but are looking out anxiously for the overland mail from Battersea.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, August 7, 1841 by Various
The passengers by the overland mail from Alexandria had arrived the afternoon before.
From What We Saw in Egypt by Anonymous
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.
