Emily Dickinson Lexicon

POST, n. [W. pôst; D. Dan. and Sw. post; G. pfoste, posten, and post; Fr. poste; Sp. poste, posta; It. posta, posto; L. postis, from positus, the given participle of pono, to place, but coinciding with Sp. posar, It. posare, to put or set.]

1. A piece of timber set upright, usually larger than a stake, and intended to support something else; as, the posts of a house; the posts of a door; the posts of a gate; the posts of a fence.
2. A military station; the place where a single soldier or a body of troops is stationed. The sentinel must not desert his post. The troops are ordered to defend the post. Hence,
3. The troops stationed at a particular place, or the ground they occupy. – Marshall. Encyc.
4. A public office or employment, that is, a fixed place or station. When vice prevails and impious men bear sway, / The post of honor is a private station. – Addison.
5. A messenger or a carrier of letters and papers; one that goes at stated times to convey the mail or dispatches. This sense also denotes fixedness, either from the practice of using relays of horses stationed at particular places, or of stationing men for carrying dispatches, or from the fixed stages where they were to be supplied with refreshments. [See Stage.] Xenophon informs us that Cyrus, king of Persia, established such stations or houses.
6. A seat or situation. – Burnet.
7. A sort of writing paper, such as is used for letters; letter paper.
8. An old game at cards.
9. In architecture and sculpture, certain ornaments shaped after the manner of rolls or wreathings. – Elmes. To ride post, to be employed to carry dispatches and papers, and as such carriers rode in haste, hence the phrase signifies to ride in haste, to pass with expedition. Post is used also adverbially, for swiftly, expeditiously, or expressly. Sent from Media post to Egypt. – Milton. Hence, to travel post, is to travel expeditiously by the use of fresh horses taken at certain stations. Knight of the post, a fellow suborned or hired to do a bad action.