How to Use telegraph in a Sentence

telegraph

1 of 2 noun
  • I sent the message by telegraph.
  • Myths hold their own in spite of the railroad and the telegraph.
    Robert Shackleton, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022
  • The train and the telegraph made long distances feel short.
    Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic, 15 Mar. 2022
  • The telegraph line that once ran alongside the track is long gone.
    Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Oct. 2020
  • News of the storm from elsewhere in the state was slow to arrive due to the damage to the telegraph and telephone poles.
    Jr Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 22 Feb. 2022
  • The telegraph leveled the playing field between Chicago and cities along the East Coast.
    Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 1 Jan. 2023
  • The telegraph and telephone reduced the need for letters.
    CBS News, 3 Feb. 2022
  • Theodore was a cousin of Alfred Vail, co-inventor of the telegraph.
    Yaakov Stein, Forbes, 15 July 2022
  • This was especially true of the railroad and the telegraph.
    Barry C. Lynn, Harper's Magazine, 18 Aug. 2020
  • The rapid progress of the telegraph during the last twenty-five years has changed the whole social and commercial systems of the world.
    Daniel Schlenoff, Scientific American, 14 Sep. 2020
  • But the Morse telegraph still required cables to function.
    Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 28 May 2020
  • They’re consistently caught up with any news, like the release of the first 8k video or the fight to recover the ship’s telegraph.
    Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone, 26 June 2023
  • The storm cut all telegraph lines between Boston and New York and capsized a schooner, killing 11 crew members.
    Jeff Martin, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Sep. 2023
  • News of the shooting spread instantly, via telegraph, across the country.
    David Rohde, The New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2020
  • There was no telegraph station here then [New Windsor] and of course no telephone.
    Mary Ann Ashcraft, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 10 Oct. 2020
  • Even as the flames roared out of control that night, telegraph reports clicked around the country and to Europe through the new transatlantic cable.
    Richard Babcock, WSJ, 16 Oct. 2020
  • One such storm, 1859's Carrington Event, zapped telegraph wires, sparking fires around the world.
    Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 9 Feb. 2022
  • First used to send messages over land in 1844, Morse code outlived the telegraph age by becoming the lingua franca of the sea.
    Saahil Desai, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2024
  • Beyond them were telegraph wires equally laden with these birds.
    Caroline Fraser, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2021
  • James Polk took the office in 1845 with Samuel Morse, inventor of the electric telegraph, sitting near him on the platform to transmit the speech through the wires.
    Leada Gore | Lgore@al.com, al, 20 Jan. 2021
  • Back in 1918, early phone lines were still being laid, and in many places the telegraph was the only way to communicate.
    Eva Kassens-Noor, The Conversation, 19 June 2020
  • In the years that followed the building served as a bakery, a telegraph station, and army barracks during World War II.
    Spencer Spellman, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Oct. 2022
  • Paralyzed, Yura stared out the window at the greenery, the telegraph poles, the little houses, the cars, the dumps, the warehouses, the cranes, the piles of coal, the heating plants, the people, the birds, the goats, the dogs. . . .
    Vladimir Sorokin, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2021
  • Yes, reports of the demise of letters have been exaggerated as far back as the advent of the telegraph.
    Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 25 June 2021
  • Hemingway had hired a Cessna to fly the couple around, and while in the air near the Murchison Falls in Uganda, the plane dove to avoid some birds, hitting a telegraph wire in the process.
    Tori Latham, Robb Report, 7 Sep. 2023
  • The board’s operator received a telegraph feed from the live game and switched on the appropriate lights.
    John Kelly, Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2022
  • Still another block farther down the street is a telegraph office.
    Merrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Mar. 2023
  • The summit was as bare as a glacier, except for a little house, no more than a hut, built of stone, and nearly empty but for a telegraph machine.
    National Geographic, 3 Nov. 2020
  • This may have been a message on the atmospheric telegraph about far-off woodland fires.
    Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2021
  • There were books, waterproof jackets, oil lanterns, a ship’s bell and an engine telegraph.
    Alistair MacDonald, WSJ, 13 May 2021
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telegraph

2 of 2 verb
  • The look on her face telegraphed bad news.
  • Please telegraph me when you get there.
  • He telegraphed a message to her.
  • Please telegraph when you get there.
  • He lost the boxing match because he was telegraphing his punches.
  • The port has so far telegraphed a desire for more hotel rooms on the parcels.
    Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Jan. 2024
  • The decision not to endorse had been telegraphed for weeks by the union.
    Alexander Tin, CBS News, 13 Feb. 2020
  • The new footwear was supposed to help telegraph that message.
    Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN, 28 Sep. 2022
  • The Fed telegraphs its moves far in advance so the markets have time to price higher rates in.
    Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2023
  • Throwing the Kurds under the bus telegraphed to the region that being friends with the Americans is a bad bet.
    Jonathan S. Tobin, National Review, 11 Oct. 2019
  • The style telegraphed Old World wealth, like a proto-McMansion.
    Adam Iscoe, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
  • Economists are forecasting that the rate hikes of the last two years are now likely a thing of the past, even if the Fed isn't telegraphing it.
    Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 11 Dec. 2023
  • The Supreme Court telegraphed its 6–3 vote last October, when the arguments were heard.
    Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker, 29 June 2023
  • And there’s no better person to telegraph your victory than the person who gave it to you: the shopper.
    Rebecca Brooks, Forbes, 23 May 2022
  • Even Meghan’s choice of wardrobe seemed calculated to telegraph the message of a new start.
    Mark Landler, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2021
  • The shocking news was soon telegraphed to Washington, where young Maj.
    Paula Allen, ExpressNews.com, 4 Apr. 2020
  • Angela lingering on the surface of the pool is not the kind of cliffhanger that telegraphs a need for a second season.
    Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 16 Dec. 2019
  • The Bengals telegraphed these moves by drafting two defensive backs with their first two picks in last year’s draft.
    Jimmy Watkins, cleveland, 21 July 2023
  • Within a few days, the spreader’s misery will telegraph to all around her that they have been exposed to the coronavirus.
    Melissa Healystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2020
  • That’s in part because these days, the Fed telegraphs its moves well in advance so financial markets can price them in ahead of time.
    Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 25 July 2023
  • Beloved heritage brands like Hunter and Birkenstock are getting in on the act, with muck-friendly styles that telegraph a comfort in the country.
    Lauren Mechling, Vogue, 30 Mar. 2021
  • Few other attack lines have been telegraphed ahead of Wednesday night.
    Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2020
  • He’s called upon to telegraph Nemo’s emotional state through his body.
    Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Sheepshead have the uncanny ability to snatch your bait so quickly that it’s gone before the bite even telegraphs to your rod tip.
    Joe Cermele, Outdoor Life, 24 Aug. 2023
  • Most of the vote-offs were clearly telegraphed and the Redemption Island twist sucked the life out of Survivor’s signature moment — the vote-off.
    Dalton Ross, EW.com, 7 May 2020
  • The idiom was used to telegraph that if Warren’s campaign was going down, her team wouldn’t be leaving without a fight.
    Amanda Becker, USA TODAY, 4 Oct. 2021
  • The downside is the U-2 isn’t very stealthy, and its appearance over the battlefield will telegraph to the enemy that something big is about to happen.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 4 May 2021
  • Both sides want to keep the border issue alive—to telegraph to the other side its claims are not acceptable—but both also want to avoid a major war.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 14 Aug. 2023
  • Keeping both options alive and telegraphed to the audience with a minimum of language is a hell of a juggling act.
    Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 15 Nov. 2019
  • At first glance, those burly tires telegraph serious off-roading skills, and GMC has continued that trend on the inside.
    Popular Science, 21 Oct. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'telegraph.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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