(1.) A runner, or courier, for the rapid transmission of letters, etc. (2 Chronicles 30:6; Esther 3:13, 15; 8:10, 14; Job 9:25; Jeremiah 51:31). Such messengers were used from very early times. Those employed by the Hebrew kings had a military character (1 Samuel 22:17; 2 Kings 10:25, "guard, " marg. "runners"). The modern system of postal communication was first established by Louis XI. of France in A.D. 1464.

(2.) This word sometimes also is used for lintel or threshold (Isaiah 6:4).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (a.) Hired to do what is wrong; suborned.

2. (n.) A piece of timber, metal, or other solid substance, fixed, or to be fixed, firmly in an upright position, especially when intended as a stay or support to something else; a pillar; as, a hitching post; a fence post; the posts of a house.

3. (n.) The doorpost of a victualer's shop or inn, on which were chalked the scores of customers; hence, a score; a debt.

4. (n.) The place at which anything is stopped, placed, or fixed; a station.

5. (n.) A station, or one of a series of stations, established for the refreshment and accommodation of travelers on some recognized route; as, a stage or railway post.

6. (n.) A military station; the place at which a soldier or a body of troops is stationed; also, the troops at such a station.

7. (n.) The piece of ground to which a sentinel's walk is limited.

8. (n.) A messenger who goes from station; an express; especially, one who is employed by the government to carry letters and parcels regularly from one place to another; a letter carrier; a postman.

9. (n.) An established conveyance for letters from one place or station to another; especially, the governmental system in any country for carrying and distributing letters and parcels; the post office; the mail; hence, the carriage by which the mail is transported.

10. (n.) Haste or speed, like that of a messenger or mail carrier.

11. (n.) One who has charge of a station, especially of a postal station.

12. (n.) A station, office, or position of service, trust, or emolument; as, the post of duty; the post of danger.

13. (n.) A size of printing and writing paper.

14. (v. t.) To attach to a post, a wall, or other usual place of affixing public notices; to placard; as, to post a notice; to post playbills.

15. (v. t.) To hold up to public blame or reproach; to advertise opprobriously; to denounce by public proclamation; as, to post one for cowardice.

16. (v. t.) To enter (a name) on a list, as for service, promotion, or the like.

17. (v. t.) To assign to a station; to set; to place; as, to post a sentinel.

18. (v. t.) To carry, as an account, from the journal to the ledger; as, to post an account; to transfer, as accounts, to the ledger.

19. (v. t.) To place in the care of the post; to mail; as, to post a letter.

20. (v. t.) To inform; to give the news to; to make (one) acquainted with the details of a subject; -- often with up.

21. (v. i.) To travel with post horses; figuratively, to travel in haste.

22. (v. i.) To rise and sink in the saddle, in accordance with the motion of the horse, esp. in trotting.

23. (adv.) With post horses; hence, in haste; as, to travel post.