post office
1
8.5
- noun
- /ˈpoʊst ˈɔfɪs/
- Archaic
:
juego del cartero
- During recess, the kids loved to play post office, happily pretending to deliver imaginary mail.
- play post office
- game of post office
Examples
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At the birthday party, they set up a corner where everyone could join in and play post office as part of the games.
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Playing post office again, huh?
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The game changed to something they called post office.
Fiction book (1992) -
How would you like to play a little post office with your anniversary girl?
Fiction book (2001) -
Well, that explains some lingering questions that I had about a game of post office we played one time.
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Lady, this ain't a post office, it's a saloon.
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Go play post office.
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The children gathered in the backyard to play post office, pretending to send letters and exchange kisses.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The core notion of children pretending to be at a postal facility (e.g. in the phrase 'Let's play post office') is derivable by a B1 learner who knows 'post' and 'office' because 'play X' commonly signals role-play. However, the specific ritual element of exchanging kisses for letters is culturally specific and not predictable from the constituent words, so the full game meaning is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Post office as a children's game comes from kids pretending to be the post, people who carry letters, and working in an office, where they 'deliver' messages to each other. In the game players often exchange kisses when they hand over a 'letter', which is why the name now means a children's kissing game.