• (RP, America) IPA: /ɪkˈspɹɛs/ IPA: /ɛk.ˈspɹɛs/

From French exprès, from Latin expressus, past participle of exprimere (see Etymology 2, below).

express

1. (not comparable) Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.

   Synonyms: fast, crack

2. (comparable) Specific or precise; directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied.

   Synonyms: explicit, plain, Thesaurus:explicit

   Antonyms: implied

   I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.

   This book cannot be copied without the express permission of the publisher.

3. Truly depicted; exactly resembling.

   In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance.

4. (postpositive, retail) Providing a more limited but presumably faster service than a full or complete dealer of the same kind or type.

   Pizza Hut Express

   McDonald's Express

• Portuguese: expresso
• Russian: ско́рый

• German: ausdrücklich
• Portuguese: expresso

express (plural expresses)

1. A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly.

   Antonyms: local, stopper

   I took the express into town.

2. A service that allows mail or money to be sent rapidly from one destination to another.
3. An express rifle.
   • 1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines:

     "Give me my express," I said, laying down the Winchester, and he handed it to me cocked.

4. (obsolete) A clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Section V”, in Clerus Domini: or, A Discourse of the Divine Institution, Necessity, Sacrednesse, and Separation of the Office Ministerial. […], London: […] R[ichard] Royston […], published 1655, →OCLC ↗, paragraph 5, page 30 ↗:

     And this [holy communion] being the great myſtery of Chriſtianity, and the onely remanent expreſſe of Chriſts ſacrifice on earth, it is moſt conſonant to the Analogy of the myſtery, that this commemorative ſacrifice be preſented by perſons as ſeparate, and diſtinct in our miniſtery, […]

5. A messenger sent on a special errand; a courier.
6. An express office.
   • 1873, Edward Everett Hale, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:

     She charged him […] to ask at the express if anything came up from town.

7. That which is sent by an express messenger or message.
   • 1726 October 27, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver's Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC ↗, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

     “5th, If an express requires extraordinary despatch, the man-mountain shall be obliged to carry, in his pocket, the messenger and horse a six days journey, once in every moon, and return the said messenger back (if so required) safe to our imperial presence.

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC ↗, page 132 ↗:

     So much was Sir Edward delighted that he sent an express to inform Lord Meersbrook of this great act of friendship, in order that he might be the more easy on their account;...

• French: express
• German: Express, Schnellzug
• Italian: espresso
• Portuguese: expresso
• Russian: экспре́сс

express

1. Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.

   The train runs express to 96 St.

From , expresser, from frequentative form of .

express (expresses, present participle expressing; simple past and past participle expressed)

1. (transitive) To convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.

   Words cannot express the love I feel for him.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith. As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.

2. (transitive) To press, squeeze out (especially said of milk).
   • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “chapter 13”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC ↗:

     The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl […]

   • 1949, United States Naval Medical Bulletin, volume 49, number 1, page 61:

     It contained many cysts which were filled with sagolike granules that could be expressed under pressure.

3. (biochemistry) To translate messenger RNA into protein.
4. (biochemistry) To transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.
   • 2015, Ferris Jabr, How Humans Ended Up With Freakishly Huge Brains Wired‎:

     When a cell “expresses” a gene, it translates the DNA first into a signature messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence and subsequently into a chain of amino acids that forms a protein.

• outspeak, utter

• expressible
• expressibly
• expression
• expressive
• expressively
• expressly

• French: exprimer
• German: ausdrücken, äußern
• Italian: esprimere, dichiarare
• Portuguese: expressar
• Russian: выража́ть
• Spanish: expresar

• French: exprimer
• Portuguese: espremer, extrair
• Spanish: exprimir

express (plural expresses)

1. (obsolete) The action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20:

     Whereby they discoursed in silence, and were intuitively understood from the theory of their expresses.

2. (obsolete) A specific statement or instruction.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:

     This Gentleman [...] caused a man to go down no less than a hundred fathom, with express to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it groweth.