mail

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Flexible armor composed of small overlapping metal rings, loops of chain, or scales.
• noun The protective covering of certain animals, as the shell of a turtle.
• transitive verb To cover or armor with mail.
• noun Materials, such as letters and packages, handled in a postal system.
• noun Postal material for a specific person or organization.
• noun Material processed for distribution from a post office at a specified time.
• noun A postal system. Used with the, sometimes in the plural.
• noun Chiefly British A vehicle by which mail is transported.
• noun Mail or messages sent electronically; e-mail.
• intransitive verb To send by a postal system.
• intransitive verb To send letters and other material by a postal system.
• noun Rent, payment, or tribute.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To spot or stain.
• To put mail upon; dress in mail; by extension, to protect with armor of any kind (see mail, n., 4): hardly used except in the past participle. See mailed.
• To pinion or fasten down, as the wings of a hawk.
• noun A bag, sack, or other receptacle for the conveyance or keeping of small articles of personal property or merchandise, especially the clothing or other baggage of a traveler, the equipments of a soldier, etc.
• noun Specifically
• noun A bag for the conveyance of letters, papers, etc., particularly letters forwarded from one post-office to another under governmental authority and care; a mail-bag.
• noun A mass or assemblage of mail-matter; collectively, the letters, papers, etc., conveyed by post; the matter sent in any way through the post-office.
• noun The person by whom or the conveyance by which the mail is carried; hence, the system of transmission by public post; postal conveyance: as, to send a package by mail; news received through the mail.
• noun A mall or mallet.
• noun A French game similar to chicane.
• noun The breast feathers of a hawk when full grown.
• noun A small coin of billon or silver current in France from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. It had half the value of the denier. Sometimes called obole.
• noun Rent; hence, payment at a fixed rate, as the rent or annual payment formerly extorted by the border robbers. Compare blackmail.
• noun A weight equal to about 105 pounds avoirdupois.
• To put in the mail; send by mail; put into the post-office for transmission by mail; post: as, to mail a letter.
• noun A spot; especially, a spot or speck on a bird's feather; hence, a spotted or speckled feather.
• noun In armor, a ring, link, or scale on a coat of mail. See def. 3.
• noun A fabric of meshes, especially and almost exclusively of metal, used as a defense against weapons; a kind of armor, specifically called chain-mail, composed of rings of metal, interlinked as in a chain, but extended in width as well as in length. : ; ;
• noun By extension, armor of any sort.
• noun Any defensive covering, as the shell of a lobster or a tortoise.
• noun Nautical, a square utensil composed of rings interwoven like network, formerly used for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.
• noun In weaving, a small metal eye or guide-ring in a heddle, through which the warp is threaded.
• noun That part of a clasp which receives the spring.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun obsolete A spot.
• noun obsolete A small piece of money; especially, an English silver half-penny of the time of Henry V.
• noun Obs., except in certain compounds and phrases, as blackmail, mails and duties, etc. Rent; tribute.
• noun (Scots Law) the rents of an estate, in whatever form paid.
• transitive verb United States To deliver into the custody of the postoffice officials, or place in a government letter box, for transmission by mail; to post.
• transitive verb To arm with mail.
• transitive verb obsolete To pinion.
• noun A flexible fabric made of metal rings interlinked. It was used especially for defensive armor.
• noun See under Chain, and Coat.
• noun Hence generally, armor, or any defensive covering.
• noun (Naut.) A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.