verb (used with object), sent, send·ing.
- to cause, permit, or enable to go: to send a messenger; They sent their son to college.
- to cause to be conveyed or transmitted to a destination: to send a letter.
- to order, direct, compel, or force to go: The president sent troops to Asia.
- to direct, propel, or deliver to a particular point, position, condition, or direction: to send a punch to the jaw; The punch sent the fighter reeling.
- to emit, discharge, or utter (usually followed by off, out, or through): The lion sent a roar through the jungle.
- to cause to occur or befall: The people beseeched Heaven to send peace to their war-torn village.
- Electricity.
- to transmit (a signal).
- to transmit (an electromagnetic wave or the like) in the form of pulses.
- Slang. to delight or excite: Frank Sinatra’s records used to send her.
verb (used without object), sent, send·ing.
- to dispatch a messenger, agent, message, etc.
- Electricity. to transmit a signal: The ship’s radio sends on a special band of frequencies.
Verb Phrases
- send down, British. to expel, especially from Oxford or Cambridge.
- send for, to request the coming or delivery of; summon: If her temperature goes up, send for the doctor.
- send forth,
- to produce; bear; yield: plants sending forth new leaves.
- to dispatch out of a country as an export.
- to issue, as a publication: They have sent forth a report to the stockholders.
- to emit or discharge: The flowers sent forth a sweet odor.
- send in, to cause to be dispatched or delivered to a destination: Send in your contest entries to this station.
- send off, to cause to depart or to be conveyed from oneself; dispatch; dismiss: His teacher sent him off to the principal’s office.
- send out,
- to distribute; issue.
- to send on the way; dispatch: They sent out their final shipment last week.
- to order delivery: We sent out for coffee.
- send up,
- to release or cause to go upward; let out.
- Informal.to sentence or send to prison: He was convicted and sent up for life.
- to expose the flaws or foibles of through parody, burlesque, caricature, lampoon, or other forms of satire: The new movie sends up merchants who commercialize Christmas.
Idioms
- send packing, to dismiss curtly; send away in disgrace: The cashier was stealing, so we sent him packing.
- send round, to circulate or dispatch widely: Word was sent round about his illness.
verb sends, sending or sent
- (tr) to cause or order (a person or thing) to be taken, directed, or transmitted to another placeto send a letter; she sent the salesman away
- (when intr, foll by for;; when tr, takes an infinitive) to dispatch a request or command (for something or to do something)he sent for a bottle of wine; he sent to his son to come home
- (tr) to direct or cause to go to a place or pointhis blow sent the champion to the floor
- (tr) to bring to a state or conditionthis noise will send me mad
- (tr; often foll by forth, out, etc) to cause to issue; emithis cooking sent forth a lovely smell from the kitchen
- (tr) to cause to happen or comemisery sent by fate
- to transmit (a message) by radio, esp in the form of pulses
- (tr) slang to move to excitement or rapturethis music really sends me
- send someone about his business to dismiss or get rid of someone
- send someone packing to dismiss or get rid of (someone) peremptorily
noun
- another word for swash (def. 4)
verb, noun sends, sending or sent
- a variant spelling of scend
v.Old English sendan “send, send forth; throw, impel,” from Proto-Germanic *sandijan (cf. Old Saxon sendian, Old Norse and Old Frisian senda, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch senden, Dutch zenden, German senden, Gothic sandjan), causative form of base *sinþan, denoting “go, journey” (source of Old English sið “way, journey,” Old Norse sinn, Gothic sinþs “going, walk, time”), from PIE root *sent- “to head for, go” (cf. Lithuanian siusti “send;” see sense (n.)). Also used in Old English of divine ordinance (e.g. godsend, from Old English sand “messenger, message,” from Proto-Germanic *sandaz “that which is sent”). Slang sense of “to transport with emotion, delight” is recorded from 1932, in American English jazz slang. Circulate widely, as in A copy of the new bylaws is being sent round to all union members. [First half of 1800s]