general post office

noun

1. (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. : G.P.O., GPO

General Post Office

noun

1. (in Britain until 1969) the department of the central Government that provided postal and telephone services
2. the main post office in a locality

Word History and Origins

Origin of general post office¹

First recorded in 1650–60

Example Sentences

She soon went to work for the General Post Office, which ran Britain’s telephone system, and was trained as a switchboard operator.

From Seattle Times

Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. for an astonishing $10 million — the equivalent to $173 million today — the hotel, which opened in 1919, was envisioned by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to be in concert with two of its other creations: Pennsylvania Station, across Seventh Avenue, and the General Post Office, on Eighth.

From Seattle Times

For 30 years, he was a United States Postal Service employee, toiling mostly in the vast mail-sorting room beyond the imposing columns of what was New York City’s general post office in Midtown Manhattan.

From New York Times

Yeats’ poem is his meditation on the Easter Rising, which saw Irish rebels declare an Irish Republic and then occupy Dublin’s General Post Office and other key buildings in the city.

From Seattle Times

The hall occupies what was once a mail-sorting room in the city’s general post office.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• postal service