letter corporal

English

Noun

letter corporal (plural letter corporals)

  1. (now rare) A corporal with responsibility for carrying or delivering letters for a given regiment etc. [from 19th c.]
    • 1861, M Beverley, The Moor Cottage, page 362:
      ‘It will soon go off; pray finish your writing. I met the letter Corporal not far off, he will be here almost immediately.
    • 1867, Private JB, letter, The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, Fifth series, vol. XIII:
      I had but just laid down my Bible, when in came the ‘letter corporal,’ saying, ‘Does B— stop here?’ having your letter in his hand.
    • 1884, Edward Dyne Fenton, Military Men I Have Met:
      It was then dropped with much solemnity into the letter-box, so as to be ready for the letter-corporal at early post time.
    • 1910, Mrs De Courcy Laffan, Dreams Made Verity, chapter heading:
      The letter-corporal’s blunder.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.