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Glite Dictionary
📬 A mail carrier 🛵 A mail scooter
postie

postie

9.5
A small motorcycle or scooter that people use to deliver mail
  • noun
  • Australian
translation icon : moto de mensajería
  • In Australia, the bright orange postie bike is a common sight in the suburbs.

Examples

  • The Australian Postal Service continues to use the Honda 110 Trail, known there as 'the postie.'

    Blog text (11)

  • Do you know it's a postie bike?

    I Love You Too (2010)

  • Postie bike.

    I Love You Too (2010)

  • The postie zoomed down the street on his small motorcycle, delivering letters to each house.

  • The postie carefully placed the mail in the mailbox before continuing on his route.

How Fast

motocross
1 3.5
motorcycle
275 2.3
postie
  • Australian
9.5
moped
18 3.2
bicycle
280 1.0

Surface Forms

postie singular
posties plural

Morphology

postie = post (opaque) = post + ie

Although the word is built on 'post', the sense 'postal delivery motorcycle or scooter' is a colloquial specialized extension, not a meaning that learners can predict from '-ie' plus 'post'.

Etymology

Postie for a bike uses the same idea: post 'mail' plus -ie gave the small motorcycles used by postal workers their friendly name. So in Australia and New Zealand a postie often means a small motorbike that delivers the mail.