postal

[pohs-tl]

adjective

1. of or relating to the post office or mail service.

   postal delivery; postal employees.

noun

1. Informal.,  postal card.

postal

/ ˈpəʊstəl /

adjective

1. of or relating to a Post Office or to the mail-delivery service

Other Word Forms

• postally adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of postal¹

First recorded in 1835–45; post ³ def. + -al ¹; 1990–95 postal for def. 3, in reference to incidents of violence among postal workers in the early 1990s

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. go postal, to lose control or go crazy, especially in a violent way.

Example Sentences

The postal service warned of severe delays in deliveries.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

OTTAWA—Workers at Canada’s state-owned postal service went on strike on Thursday night after the Liberal government ordered that money-losing Canada Post abandon door-to-door delivery, close post offices and make cuts to operating expenses.

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Online communication has already caused its first casualty among traditional postal services: Denmark recently ended its letter deliveries service, PostNord.

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Don’t worry, your postal carrier is still on the job.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The sweeping changes announced by the federal government follows years of financial losses sustained by the postal service, which faces reduced demand and stiff competition from private parcel delivery services.

Read more on BBC