[f. prec. sb.; cf. F. télégraphier.]
1. a. intr. To signal or communicate by telegraph; to send a telegram.
1815. J. Campbell, Trav. S. Afr., xlii. 508. On the succeeding morning … the Carmarthen Indiaman, after hailing us, and finding we had no news, telegraphed, as follows: ‘Peace with France!! Buonaparte dethroned!!!’
1831. Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son, I. 253. We saw the frigate hoist the recal signal … and telegraph to her companion.
1858. Dickens, Lett. (1830), II. 79. We have telegraphed to know.
1870. Miss Bridgman, Rob. Lynne, II. ix. 181. I should like Charles telegraphed for.
b. trans. To send, transmit, or announce (a message, news, etc.) by telegraph (with simple obj. or obj. cl.). In Cricket, etc., to exhibit (the score, etc.) on the telegraph-board (see prec. 4).
1805. Capt. Crumby, in 19th Cent. Nov. (1899), 720. Seeing the Admiral telegraph to Captain Blackwood … ‘I rely on your keeping sight of the enemy through the night.’
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xli. The reconnoitring ships telegraphing ‘a French squadron.’
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, ii. (1850), 15/2. Soon afterwards the Britannia steam-packet, from Liverpool, eighteen days out, was telegraphed at Boston.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 9 May, 5/3. The play was again spirited, and in less than ten minutes 200 was telegraphed.
fig. 1885. Ranney, in Harper’s Mag., March, 636/2. The eye … telegraphs the outline … to the cells in the cortex.
c. To send a message to (a person, etc.) by telegraph; to summon by a telegram.
1810. Capt. Maurice, in Naval Chron., XXV. 218. The … gun-brig was telegraphed to send a boat.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXII. 130. The pointers were telegraphed, and so were his attending boys.
1891. F. W. Robinson, Her Love & His Life, VII. v. Felix has been telegraphed to town.
2. fig. a. intr. To make signs, signal (to a person). b. trans. To make (a signal); to convey or announce by signs. c. To signal to (a person). Now rare.
1825. [see telegraphing below].
1825. C. M. Westmacott, Eng. Spy, I. 167. Never telegraph’d the big wigs.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, viii. Tom Durfy … began telegraphing Biddy, who … had shoved herself well before the door.
1844. Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury, xiii. Emma telegraphed a nod of assent.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, I. They telegraphed each other with wondering eyes.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, II. v. 63. He telegraphed to me (I was in the area) to come up to him.
1891. ‘Mark Twain,’ Mental Telegraphy, in £1,000,000 Bank-note, etc. (1893), 45. I began to keep a record, after that, of such experiences of mine as seemed explicable by the theory that minds telegraph thoughts to each other.
Hence Telegraphed ppl. a., Telegraphing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Telegraphee, the person to whom a telegram is sent.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Sutherl. (Colburn), 15. Nor was this telegraphing wholly unnoticed by George.
a. 1837. Warren, Diary Late Physic. (1838), III. 275. A kind of telegraphing courtship was carried on between them daily.
1875. Kinglake, Crimea, V. vi. 91, note. Telegraphed signals.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent Man, 234. More perfect forms of human intercourse than telegraphed or telephoned words.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 4 Nov., 2/3. A decision of Lord Coleridge’s that there was no property in a special telegram, though it may have cost the telegraphee a thousand pounds to procure.
