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.
Before Reed Hastings revolutionized the global entertainment business, he sold Rainbow vacuum cleaners door-to-door during his gap year between high school and Bowdoin College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026
Scottish Water said it was arranging fresh water to be brought to Killin by tanker, and door-to-door bottled water deliveries would be carried out on Friday afternoon.
From BBC • Feb. 20, 2026
"But I have never seen Oli so stressed," he said, noting that this time, unusually, he is going door-to-door to woo voters.
From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026
In Texas, Bamberger worked selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
They were started by door-to-door salesmen, short-order cooks, orphans, and dropouts, by eternal optimists looking for a piece of the next big thing.
From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser
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.
