A prerecorded voice on a Chicago bus:
"This bus will express at Delaware!"

Is this the correct usage? My dictionary didn't say that it could be used as an intransitive verb, but perhaps another's does?

Kalleh, were you still on the bus when it got to Delaware? What did it do?

Your post inspires nightmare visions of a bus loaded with deleted expletives and the like, all being released at Delaware.

It's a difficult question. If you go by the dictionaries define language rule, it's improper, but if you go by the speakers define language rule, it's OK, mainly because it's understandable. (Please note, I haven't said it's an OK usage. Some days I'm more of a prescriptive grammarian than a descriptive one.) The real test will be if it catches on with other bus drivers (or already has) and from them spreads to the non-bus-driver community. The only verb express that I know is transitive, but neither does it mean "to become an express (bus)". Just my tuppence.

...and yet it doesn't seem unlikely to have someone order merchandise and be happy to hear "We'll express it to you overnight."

Verb, transitive, in this context, certainly? An outgrowth of the adjective "express," fast because of limited stops, as opposed to "local," stopping at all points along the way. (Lexington Av;enue, here we come!)

Although I must say I've never heard it verbed in the Chicago sense above.

Actually, Jerry, I wasn't on the bus. I read about it in the paper. Evidently the announcement was slow enough that it startled the passengers. They heard, "This bus will ex....," and some of them thought the word was going to be "explode!"

Another definition for "to express" is that process by which a lactating woman removes milk from her breast to be put into another container for later use in feeding a child.

If I were on a bus which announced it was about to express, I might be concerned about the stability of its transmission fluids, etc.

CJ, please accept this as the compliment that is intended. I sometimes worry about your thought processes.

Every silver lining has a cloud.
Read all about my travels around the world here.
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As my grandfather once said, "Twisted thought processes are better than no thought processes at all!"


(Of course, shortly after he said that we put him into a home...)

Just so long as it didn't "express momentarily" to Delaware - that would really confuse any British passengers!

Richard English