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Glite Dictionary
telegraph form

telegraph form

8.2
A printed form you use to write a telegram
  • noun
  • /ˈtɛlɪˌɡræf fɔrm/
  • Archaic
translation icon : formulario de telégrafo
  • The post office had a stack of telegraph forms ready for customers needing to send telegrams.

Examples

  • She filled out the telegraph form to send a message to her family.

  • He throws the telegram onto the floor, where it joins a whole sea of yellow telegraph forms.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • After writing her message, she placed it inside a telegraph form before mailing it.

Surface Forms

telegraph form singular
telegraph forms plural

Morphology

telegraph + form

The meaning 'a printed or written form used to compose and send a telegram' is directly derivable from combining 'telegraph' (a device/network for sending messages) with 'form' (a document with spaces to complete). This simple noun+noun composition follows regular English compounding patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Telegraph form comes from the early days of the telegraph. People wrote short notes on a printed form to give to the operator to send as a 'telegram', so the term means the paper used to write and send a 'telegram'.