snail mail
7
3.4
- noun
- /sneɪl meɪl/
- Informal
:
correo tradicional
- I prefer to send birthday cards through snail mail instead of email to make them feel more personal.
- snail mail letter
I get so much junk snail mail, it's ridiculous.
- I get so much junk snail mail, it's ridiculous.
- Dear Drew, I am too, a big fan of snail mail.
- HuffPost has a story about the ongoing resurgence of real snail mail pen pals.
- OK, so we don't do I Yeah, I haven't, I haven't done the snail mail thing.
- But he doesn't seem to grasp the added utility that these modern mediums have over snail mail.
- And so I got copies of the all these articles and stuck them in the mail, the snail mail to get them to Steve.
- And then the next thing she sees is the city's overrun, you know, and back then, it was snail mail.
- I think unless, unless you have people sending you snail mail or something, maybe that becomes manageable.
- They were taken their snail mail time and we see the date that it's gonna come and it it didn't arrive.
Examples
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If other applicants respond online, your snail mail resume may not get there quickly enough.
Blog text (18) -
If you want to contact him via snail mail, it is best to wait until the transfer is complete.
Blog text (21) -
So, I mean, snail mail is alive and well and I know it's huge this week.
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No need to wait for snail mail to get it to you.
Blog text (21) -
If you want to contact a senator, both email and snail mail are equally good.
Blog text (27) -
Yes, it is called "snail mail" for a reason: it's slow, especially if you mail overseas.
Blog text (21) -
I get so much junk snail mail, it's ridiculous.
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Justin checked his snail mail and found, as he'd hoped, a check from his father and another from his mother.
Fiction book (1999) -
Her snail-mail address was an international post-office box, which just meant the mail was forwarded elsewhere.
Fiction book (2000) -
Regarding project Diagnose Lynna, is there a snail mail address to send donations to?
Blog text (7)
Synonyms
204
1.0
Letters and packages that are delivered to people
175
1.0
Letters and packages sent or delivered by the postal service
5
1.0
Sent or received by mail
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'physical postal mail that is slow compared with electronic mail' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'snail' (denoting slowness) with 'mail' (postal items). The animal-as-slow metaphor is straightforward and the contrast with email makes the intended sense predictable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
The phrase snail mail comes from a simple picture: people compare regular mail sent by post to a slow snail. One popular story says people started using it after 'email' arrived to show that 'postal mail' is much slower, so today snail mail means letters and packages sent by post rather than 'email'.