What does "write" mean?
Write: To set down for reading; to express in legible or intelligible characters; to inscribe; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement; hence, specifically, to set down in an epistle; to communicate by letter. Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to one she loves. Shak. I chose to write the thing I durst not speak To her I loved. Prior.
Additional senses
- 2.Hence, to compose or produce, as an author. I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time within the memory of men still living. Macaulay.
- 3.To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave; as, truth written on the heart.
- 4.To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; -- often used reflexively. He who writes himself by his own inscription is like an ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what shape it is, which else no man could imagine. Milton. To write to, to communicate by a written document to. -- Written laws, laws deriving their force from express legislative enactment, as contradistinguished from unwritten, or common, law. See the Note under Law, and Common law, under Common, a.
- 5.To form characters, letters, or figures, as representative of sounds or ideas; to express words and sentences by written signs. Chaucer. So it stead you, I will write, Please you command. Shak.
- 6.To be regularly employed or occupied in writing, copying, or accounting; to act as clerk or amanuensis; as, he writes in one of the public offices.
- 7.To frame or combine ideas, and express them in written words; to play the author; to recite or relate in books; to compose. They can write up to the dignity and character of the authors. Felton.
- 8.To compose or send letters. He wrote for all the Jews that went out of his realm up into Jewry concerning their freedom. 1 Esdras iv. 49.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00