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Glite Dictionary
postage meter

postage meter

1 4.2
A machine that prints paid postage on mail and records the cost
  • noun
  • /ˈpoʊstɪdʒ ˈmiːtər/
translation icon : métrica de franqueo
  • Using a postage meter can save time and money when sending out large volumes of mail.

Examples

  • Use unadulterated stamps or else use a postage meter.

    Blog text (32)

  • The office manager decided to invest in a postage meter for easier handling of bulk shipments.

  • Before mailing the packages, make sure to print the labels with the postage meter for accurate rates.

How Automatic

postage meter
1 4.2
handstamp
1 4.1

Surface Forms

postage meter singular
postage meters plural

Morphology

postage + meter

The meaning is directly compositional: 'postage' (the charge for sending mail) combined with 'meter' (a device or the action of applying/measuring postage) yields a machine that applies or records postage. This follows regular noun+noun compound logic and has clear cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the meaning.

Etymology

Postage meter comes from the two words postage and meter: postage is the money to send a letter and a meter is a device that 'measures' an amount. Early machines 'measured' and stamped the 'paid' amount on letters, so the name came to mean the machine that stamps mail and records the charge.