morse

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Morse code, a system representing letters and numbers by sequences of short and long signals

   The operator sent the distress message in Morse.

2. 2
   verb

   to transmit a message by Morse code

   The radio officer Morsed the ship's position to the coast station.

3. 3
   noun

   historical: an ornamental clasp or brooch fastening the front of an ecclesiastical cope

   A gold morse fastened the embroidered cope across the priest's chest.

4. 4
   noun

   archaic: a walrus

   The sailors' account called the great tusked animal a morse.

The code sense commemorates American inventor Samuel F. B. Morse. The ecclesiastical clasp comes through Old French mors from Latin morsus, 'bite,' for something that grips. The archaic walrus sense has a separate, uncertain northern European origin related to words such as Russian morzh.

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