calling, selling, canvassing, etc., at each house or apartment in an area, town, or the like.
a door-to-door poll.
sent direct from the point of pickup to the point of delivery, as a shipment or order of merchandise.
covering the complete route of a door-to-door shipment, delivery, etc..
door-to-door carrying charges; door-to-door insurance.
(of selling, canvassing, etc) from one house to the next
(of journeys, deliveries, etc) direct
Calling at each house, apartment, store, etc. in an area, in order to deliver, sell, or ask for something. For example, We were asked to go door to door to collect enough signatures . [c. 1900]
Sent from a place of origin or pickup to a place of delivery. For example, They quoted me a price for door to door, as well as a lower one if I would pick up the goods myself . This usage is nearly always applied to a shipment of merchandise.
First recorded in 1900–05
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"I am going door to door," BNP candidate S.M Zilany, 57, told AFP, saying many would-be voters had never had a candidate canvass for their backing.
From Barron's • Jan. 24, 2026
Mr. Fiennes’s Dr. Henry Guthrie bustles from door to door, looking in at every bakery and pub to ask the working lads whether any of them can sing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 24, 2025
While she was delivering door to door in her hi-viz vest, Jones, then 23, had already been to a Rugby World Cup final.
From BBC • Sep. 24, 2025
Her family didn’t have a lot of money so she went door to door selling grapefruit to buy new magic tricks from Bert Easley’s Fun Shop.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 4, 2025
She went door to door, asking anyone who would talk to her—which wasn’t many at first.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
