stamps

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of stamp.

   The collector kept his oldest stamps in a velvet-lined album.

   Visa stamps filled nearly every page of her worn passport.

   Note

   This plural shares its spelling with the present-tense verb, as in she stamps her foot, so the surrounding words decide which is meant. As a noun it carries every meaning of stamp at once: postage and tax stamps, inked impressions, the devices that make them, decorative stickers for letters and craft work, and, in slang, tattoos.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of stamp.

   The machine stamps a fresh date onto every carton that passes through.

   He stamps the snow off his boots before stepping inside.

   Note

   Here the -s marks agreement, not number. It appears only with a singular third-person subject in the present tense (the clerk stamps, it stamps), while I, you, we and they take bare stamp. Most uses are transitive and need an object, as in stamps a passport, stamps a letter or stamps his feet. One is intransitive and stands alone, as when someone simply stamps across the room.

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