express

Etymology 1

From French exprès, from Latin expressus, past participle of exprimere (see Etymology 2, below).

adj

1. (not comparable) Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.
2. (comparable) Specific or precise; directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied.
   I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.
   This book cannot be copied without the express permission of the publisher.
   Beginning with the next issue, which will be the January, 1950, issue, this magazine will be published on the first of every month. This step has been taken at the express wish of readers despite the present paper and production difficulties. 1949 November and December, “Return to Monthly Publication”, in Railway Magazine, page 351
3. Truly depicted; exactly resembling.
   In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance.
   Soon as the potion works, their human countenance, / The express resemblance of the gods, is changed / Into some brutish form, of wolf, or bear, / Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, / All other parts remaining as they were[…] 1634, John Milton, edited by Homer Sprague, The Mask of Comus, New York: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co., published 1876, page 253
4. (postpositive, retail) Providing a more limited but presumably faster service than a full or complete dealer of the same kind or type.
   Pizza Hut Express
   McDonald's Express

noun

1. A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly.
   I took the express into town.
   The train was moving less fast through the summer night. The swift express had changed into something almost a parliamentary, had stopped three times since Norwich, and now, at long last, was approaching Banton. 1931, Francis Beeding, “1/1”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps
   Except for the mid-winter period, when the 11.30 a.m. from Paddington and its opposite number will be withdrawn - Torquay now has seven daily expresses to and from Paddington as compared with five down and six up previously. 1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 590
2. A service that allows mail or money to be sent rapidly from one destination to another.
3. An express rifle.
   "Give me my express," I said, laying down the Winchester, and he handed it to me cocked. 1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
4. (obsolete) A clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration.
5. A messenger sent on a special errand; a courier.
   I learned, to my inexpressible terror, that at two o'clock, the day before, an express had been sent to Geraldine by Mr Bergasse, with a letter, which he had received from the Hotel de Romagnecourt. 1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 381
6. An express office.
   She charged him […] to ask at the express if anything came up from town. 1873, Edward Everett Hale, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
7. That which is sent by an express messenger or message.
   popular captations, which some men use in their Speeches, and Expresses 1648, attributed to Charles I of England, Εἰκὼν Βασιλική [Eikōn Basilikē = Royal Portrait]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie, in His Solitvdes and Svfferings

adv

1. Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.
   The train runs express to 96 St.

Etymology 2

From Old French espresser, expresser, from frequentative form of Latin exprimere.

verb

1. (transitive) To convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.
   Words cannot express the love I feel for him.
2. (transitive) To press, squeeze out (especially said of milk).
   It contained many cysts which were filled with sagolike granules that could be expressed under pressure. 1949, United States Naval Medical Bulletin, volume 49, number 1, page 61
   They don’t have teats, so the mothers express their milk onto their bellies for their young to feed. 15 March 2018, Kelsey Munroe, The Guardian
3. (biochemistry) To translate messenger RNA into protein.
4. (biochemistry) To transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.
   When a cell “expresses” a gene, it translates the DNA first into a signature messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence and subsequently into a chain of amino acids that forms a protein. 2015, Ferris Jabr, How Humans Ended Up With Freakishly Huge Brains Wired

noun

1. (obsolete) The action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression.
   Whereby they discoursed in silence, and were intuitively understood from the theory of their expresses. 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20
2. (obsolete) A specific statement or instruction.
   This Gentleman … caused a man to go down no less than a hundred fathom, with express to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it groweth. 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5