telegram

noun

1. A message transmitted by telegraph.

   “There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.[…]Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.”

   “On 20 May 1937 when down in Bradford-on-Avon on business, Bulleid received a telegram with the cryptic news: 'Sir Herbert Walker wishes to see you twelve thirty tomorrow—Gresley'.”

   “Indians awoke on Monday to find their 162-year-old telegram service rendered obsolete, superseded by SMS, e-mail and Twitter. Arguably one of the oldest victims of the digital age, telegrams were the fastest communication method from the 19th century.”

2. A Telegram channel.

   “Does anyone have the Telegram link?”

verb

1. (intransitive)To send a telegram.

   “In the brouhaha over the reappointment of Superior Court Judge Sylvia Pressler, we organized massive support - telegramming, telephoning and writing to encourage the State Senate to exercise its advise and consent function responsibly.”

   “He was a very posh chap from Oxfordshire, whose dad had been Chancellor and whose mum was obliged to keep telegramming round to find him a job because little Winnie had flunked out of his very expensive school.”

2. (transitive)To send a telegram to (a person).

   “So when King – who had been in Atlanta for “Bloody Sunday” – telegrammed Parks about returning to Alabama to take part in a third mass march from Selma to Montgomery, her immediate answer was “Why, of course.””

3. (transitive)To send (a message) in a telegram.
4. (informal, transitive)To send a message using the Telegram instant messaging service.

name

1. An encrypted, cloud-based instant messaging service.

   “Following his arrest, Telegram said Durov had “nothing to hide” and that it was “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.””