- send
- send, dispatch, forward, transmit, remit, route, ship are comparable when they mean to cause to go or to be taken from one place or person or condition to another.Send, the most general term, carries a wide range of implications and connotations and is capable of replacing any of the remaining terms especially when joined with a suitable modifying adverb. Basically it implies the action of an agent or sometimes an agency or instrumentality that initiates passage of one to another typically by ordering or directing{
sent a messenger to the bank
}{if the body is rotated in any dimension of space, certain definite and fixed messages will be sent to the brain by the vestibular sense— Armstrong
}or by using force{send an arrow into a target
}{there can come a cloudburst, an inch or two or three falling within an hour to wash out fields, send rivers flooding, wreck houses— La Farge
}or by employing some available facility or inherent capacity or power{send a letter by airmail
}{the burning forest sent smoke over the city
}{diseases that rack the human frame and send epidemics of sickness over great tracts of the earth's surface— Swinton
}Often the term carries special connotations characteristic of particular idioms; thus, when one sends a child to college, one makes it possible for him to go by providing funds; when a teacher sends her pupils back to their books after recess she leads them to shift their focus from one activity (play) to another (study); when a story sends its hearers into gales of laughter it impels attention and alters mood; when something (as music or a personality) sends one, it induces an intense emotional response.Dispatch tends to suggest speed in sending and to heighten notions of specific destination or cause, though the use of a speedy means is as likely to be stated as implied{the police chief dispatched several detectives to the scene of the murder
}{two destroyers were dispatched to the aid of the sinking vessel
}{dispatch word to them by radio
}{a messenger was dispatched with a reprieve but failed to arrive before the soldier had been shot— Amer. Guide Series: Conn.
}Forward (see also ADVANCE) implies a sending on or forward especially of something that has been delayed or stopped before reaching the person to whom it is to be delivered{the letter had been forwarded from his old address— J. D. Beresford
}or, in commercial use, of something that has been asked for or ordered{the goods ordered will be forwarded by parcel post
}Transmit (see also CARRY) fundamentally implies a sending or passing from one place, person, or point to another; it often emphasizes the means rather than the fact of sending{the information can be most rapidly transmitted by radio
}{the virus of yellow fever is transmitted by a mosquito
}{prophets, who are ... a vehicle through which to transmit a revelation—W. W. Howells
}Remit (see also EXCUSE) especially in reference to money can mean merely to send{profits, dividends, interest, rents and royalties may be remitted to any country— Mikesell
}but often implies a sending in response to a demand{please remit the balance due on your account
}In more general and in legal use the term is likely to imply a sending or referring back (as for further action or consideration){where an appellate court . . . reverses an original sentence . .. and remits the record for appropriate action, the lower court may proceed to sentence the defendant anew in proper form and according to law— U. S. v. Keenan
}{there may be disputes whether an issue belongs to the side of civil or to that of administrative law. Such conflicts and disputes are remitted . . . to the arbitrating authority— Ernest Barker
}Route implies a sending along of something according to a predetermined route, and often suggests the reaching in proper succession of one person or place after another{route a memorandum to the various staff members
}{route the films to a chain of motion-picture theaters
}Ship applies to the sending especially of heavy goods or articles specifically by ship or more generally by any normal commercial transportation channel{ship coal to distant lands
}{ship freight by rail
}{kept busy... shipping mackerel and cod—C. R. Sumner
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
