Letter
| Noun | 1. |  letter - a written message addressed to a person or organization; "mailed an indignant letter to the editor"Synonyms: missive |
| 2. | letter - the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech; "his grandmother taught him his letters" Synonyms: alphabetic character, letter of the alphabet | |
| 3. | letter - a strictly literal interpretation (as distinct from the intention); "he followed instructions to the letter"; "he obeyed the letter of the law" | |
| 4. | letter - an award earned by participation in a school sport; "he won letters in three sports" Synonyms: varsity letter | |
| 5. | letter - owner who lets another person use something (housing usually) for hire | |
| Verb | 1. | letter - win an athletic letter |
| 2. | letter - set down or print with letters | |
| 3. | letter - mark letters on or mark with letters |
LETTER, com. law, Crim. law. An epistle; a despatch; a written message,
usually on paper, which is folded up and sealed, sent by one person to
another.
2. A letter is always presumed to be sealed, unless the presumption be
rebutted. 1 Caines, R. 682. 1
3. This subject will be considered by 1st. Taking a view of the law
relating to the transmission of letters through the post office; and, 2. The
effect of letters in making contracts. 3. The ownership of letters sent and
received.
4.-1. Letters are, commonly sent through the post office, and the law
has carefully provided for their conveyance through the country, and their
delivery to the persons to whom they are addressed. The act to reduce into
one the several acts establishing and regulating the post office department,
section 21, 3 Story's Laws United States, 1991, enacts, that if any person
employed in any of the departments of the post office establishment, shall
unlawfully detain, delay, or open, any letter, packet, bag, or mail of
letters, with which he shall be entrusted, or which shall have come to his
possession, and which are intended to be conveyed by post or, if any such
person shall secrete, embezzle, or destroy, any letter or packet entrusted
to such person as aforesaid, and which shall not contain any security for,
or assurance relating to money, as hereinafter described, every such
offender, being thereof duly convicted, shall, for every such offence, be
fined, not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisoned, not exceeding six
months, or both, according to the circumstances and aggravations of the
offence. And if any person, employed as aforesaid, shall secrete, embezzle,
or destroy any letter, packet, bag, or mail of letters, with which he or she
shall be entrusted, or which shall have come to his or her possession, and
are intended to be conveyed by post, containing any bank notes, or bank post
bill, bill of exchange, warrant of the treasury of the United States, note
of assignment of stock in the funds, letters of attorney for receiving
annuities or dividends, or for, selling stock in the funds, or for receiving
the interest thereof, or any letter of credit, or note for, or relating to,
payment of moneys or any bond, or warrant, draft, bill, or promissory note,
covenant, contract, or agreement whatsoever, for, or relating to, the
payment of money, or the delivery of any article of value, or the
performance of any act, matter, or thing, or any receipt, release,
acquittance, or discharge of, or from, any debt; covenant, or demand, or any
part thereof, or any copy of any record of any judgment or decree, in any
court of law or chancery, or any execution which way may have issued
thereon; or any copy of any other record, or any other article of value, or
any writing representing the same or if any such person, employed as
aforesaid, shall steal, or take, any of the same out of any letter, packet,
bag, or mail of letters, that shall come to his or her possession, such
person shall, on conviction for any such offence, be imprisoned not less
than ten years, nor exceeding twenty-one years; and if any person who shall
have taken charge of the mails of the United States, shall quit or desert
the same before such person delivers it into the post office kept at the
termination of the route, or some known mail carrier, or agent of the
general post office, authorized to receive the same, every such person, so
offending, shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars,
for every such offence; and if any person concerned in carrying the mail of
the United States, shall collect, receive, or carry any letter, or packet,
or shall cause or procure the same to be done, contrary, to this act, every
such offender shall forfeit and pay for every such offence a sum, not
exceeding fifty dollars.
5.-2. Most contracts may be formed by correspondence; and cases not
unfrequently arise where it is difficult to say whether the concurrence of
the will of the contracting parties took place or not. In order to form a
contract both parties must concur at the same time, or there is no
agreement. Suppose, for example, that Paul of Philadelphia, is desirous of
purchasing a thousand bales of cotton, and offers by letter to Peter of New
Orleans, to buy them from him at a certain price; but on the next day he
changes his mind, and then he writes to Peter that he withdraws his offer;
or on the next day he dies; in either case, there is no contract, because
Paul did not continue in the same disposition to buy the cotton, at the time
that his offer was accepted. The precise moment when the consent of both
parties is perfect, is, in strictness, when the person who made the offer
becomes acquainted with the fact that it has been accepted. But this may be
presumed from circumstances. The acceptance must be of the same precise
terms without any variance whatever. 4 Wheat. 225; see 1 Pick. 278; 10 Pick.
326; 6 Wend. 103.
6.-3. A letter received by the person to whom it is directed, is the
qualified property of such person: but where it is of a private nature, the
receiver has no right to publish it without the consent of the writer,
unless under very extraordinary circumstances; as, for example, when it is
requisite to the defence of the character of the party who received it. 2
Ves. & B. 19; 2 Atk. 542; Amb. 737; 1 Ball. & B. 207; 1 Mart. (Lo.) R. 297;
Denisart, verbo Lettres Missives. Vide Dead Letter; Jeopardy; Mail;
Newspaper; Postage; Post Master General.
LETTER, contracts. In the civil law, locator, and in the French law,
locateur, loueur, or bailleur, is he who, being the owner of a thing, lets
it out to another for hire or compensation. See Hire; Locator; Conductor;
Story on Bailm. Sec. 369.
2. According to the French and civil law, in virtue of the contract,
the letter of a thing to hire impliedly engages that the hirer shall have
the full use and enjoyment of the thing hired, and that he will fulfill his
own engagements and trusts in respect to it, according to the original
intention of the parties. This implies an obligation to deliver the thing to
the hirer; to refrain from every obstruction to the use of it by the hirer
during the period of the bailment; to do no act which shall deprive the
hirer of the thing; to warrant the title and possession to the hirer, to
enable him to use the thing or to perform the service; to keep the thing in
suitable order and repair for the purpose of the bailment; and finally to
warrant the thing from from any fault inconsistent with the use of it. These
are the main obligations deduced from the nature of the contract, and they
seem generally founded on unexceptionable reasoning. Pothier, Louage, n. 53;
Id. n. 217; Domat, B. 1, tit. 4, Sec. 3 Code Civ. of L. tit. 9, c. 2, s. 2.
It is difficult to say how far (reasonable as they are in a general sense)
these obligations are recognized in the common law. In some respects the
common law certainly differs. See Repairs; Dougl. 744, 748; 1 Saund. 321,
32e, and ibid. note 7; 4 T. R. 318; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 980 et seq.
LETTER, civil law. The answer which the prince gave to questions of law which had been submitted to him by magistrates, was called letters or epistles. See Rescripts.
To dream that you receive a letter, signifies a new opportunity or challenge. Alternatively, the letter represents a message from your unconscious mind. The contents of the letter may offer you some guidance in a current situation. Consider also how the letter may be a pun on "let her".PP, RD, RFD, accurately, acknowledgment, advice, airmail, alphabet, alphabetize, answer, art, article, ascender, autograph, back, bastard type, beard, belles-lettres, belly, bevel, billet, black letter, blueprint, body, book post, brainchild, business letter, cap, capital, capitalize, case, charactering, characterization, chart, chit, choreography, communication, communique, composition, computer printout, conventional representation, copy, correspondence, counter, culture, dance notation, delineation, demonstration, depiction, depictment, descender, diagram, direct mail, direct-mail selling, dispatch, document, draft, drama, drawing, edited version, em, embassy, en, engrossment, epistle, erudition, essay, exactly, exemplification, express, face, fair copy, fat-faced type, favor, feet, fiction, figuration, final draft, finished version, first draft, flimsy, font, fourth-class mail, frank, groove, halfpenny post, hieroglyphic, holograph, iconography, ideogram, illustration, imagery, imaging, initial, inscribe, italic, junk mail, learning, letter post, letters, ligature, limning, line, literae scriptae, literally, literary artefact, literary production, literatim, literature, logogram, logograph, logotype, lower case, lucubration, mail, mail-order selling, mailing list, majuscule, manuscript, map, matter, memorandum, minuscule, missive, musical notation, newspaper post, nick, nonfiction, notation, opus, original, paper, parcel post, parchment, penscript, pi, pica, pictogram, picturization, piece, piece of writing, plan, play, pneumatogram, poem, point, portraiture, portrayal, post, post day, precisely, prefigurement, presentment, print, printed matter, printing, printout, production, projection, reading matter, realization, recension, registered mail, release, rendering, rendition, reply, report, representation, rescript, roman, rural delivery, rural free delivery, sans serif, schema, scholarship, score, screed, scrip, script, scrive, scroll, sea mail, seapost, second draft, shank, shoulder, sic, small cap, small capital, special delivery, special handling, spell out, stamp, stem, strictly, surface mail, syllabary, tablature, telegram, the written word, thus, to the letter, transcribe, transcript, transcription, transliterate, type, type body, type class, type lice, typecase, typeface, typefounders, typefoundry, typescript, upper case, verbatim, version, word, word for word, work, write, writing