Emily Dickinson Lexicon

POST-LI-MIN'I-UM, or POST-LIM'I-NY, n. [L. post, after, and limen, end, limit.]

Postliminium, among the Romans, was the return of a person to his own country who had gone to sojourn in a foreign country, or had been banished or taken by an enemy. In the modern law of nations, the right of postliminy is that by virtue of which, persons and things taken by an enemy in war, are restored to their former state, when coming again under the power of the nation to which they belonged. The sovereign of a country is bound to protect the person and the property of his subjects; and a subject who has suffered the loss of his property by the violence of war, on being restored to his country, can claim to be re-established in all his rights, and to recover his property. But this right does not extend, in all cases, to personal effects or movables, on account of the difficulty of ascertaining their identity. – Vattel. Du Ponceau.

POST-MAN, n.

A post or courier; a letter-carrier. – Granger.

POST-MARK, n.

The mark or stamp of a post-office on a letter.

POST-MAS-TER, n.

The officer who has the superintendence and direction of a post-office. Postmaster-general, is the chief officer of the post-office department, whose duty is to make contracts for the conveyance of the public mails and see that they are executed and who receives the moneys arising from the postage of letters, pays the expenses, keeps the accounts of the office, and superintends the whole department.

POST-ME-RID'I-AN, a. [L. postmeridianus. See Meridian.]

Being or belonging to the afternoon; as, postmeridian sleep. – Bacon.

POST-MORTEM, adv. [Post-mortem.]

After death. A post-mortem examination of a body is one made after the death of the patient.

POST-NATE, a. [L. post, after, and natus, born.]

Subsequent. [Little used.] – Taylor.

POST-NOTE, n. [post and note.]

In commerce, a bank note intended to be transmitted to a distant place by the public mail, and made payable to order. In this it differs from a common bank note, which is payable to the bearer.

POST-NUP'TIAL, a. [post and nuptial.]

Being or happening after marriage; as, a postnuptial settlement on a wife. – Kent.

POST-OB'IT, n. [L. post and obitus.]

1. A bond payable after the death of the obligor.
2. Post-obit is used by physicians precisely like post-mortem.

POST-OF-FICE, n.

An office or house where letters are received for delivery to the persons to whom they are addressed, or to be transmitted to other places in the public mails; a post-house.

POST-PAID, a.

Having the postage paid on; as a letter.

POST-PONE, v.t. [L. postpono; post, after, and pono, to put.]

1. To put off; to defer to a future or later time; to delay; as, to postpone the consideration of a bill or question to the afternoon, or to the following day.
2. To set below something else in value or importance. All other considerations should give way and be postponed to this. – Locke.

POST-PON-ED, pp.

Delayed; deferred to a future time; set below at value.

POST-PONE-MENT, n.

The act of deferring to a future time; temporary delay of business. – T. Pickering. Kent.

POST-PON-ENCE, n.

Dislike. [Not in use.] – Johnson.

POST-PON-ER, n.

One who postpones.

POST-PON-ING, ppr.

Deferring to a future time.

POST-PO-SI'TION, n. [post and position.]

The state of being put back or out of the regular place. – Mede.

POST-RE-MOTE, a. [post and remote.]

More remote in subsequent time or order. – Darwin.

POST-SCRIPT, n. [L. post, after, and scriptum, written.]

A paragraph added to a letter after it is concluded and signed by the writer; or any addition made to a book or composition after it had been supposed to be finished, containing something omitted, or something new occurring to the writer. – Locke. Addison.

POST-SCRIPT-ED, a.

Added in a postscript. – J. Q. Adams.

POST-TOWN, n.

1. A town in which a post-office is established by law.
2. A town in which post-horses are kept.

POS'TU-LANT, n. [See Postulate.]

One who makes demand.

POS'TU-LATE, n. [L. postulatum, from postulo, to demand, from the root of posco, to ask or demand. The sense is to urge or push.]

A position or supposition assumed without proof, or one which is considered as self-evident, or too plain to require illustration. – Encyc. A self-evident problem, answering to axiom, which is a self-evident theorem. – D. Olmsted.