land-office business

American  

[land-aw-fis, -of-is] / ˈlændˌɔ fɪs, -ˌɒf ɪs /

noun

1. a lively, booming, expanding, or very profitable business.

---

land-office business British  

noun

1. informal a booming or thriving business

---

land-office business Idioms  

1. A thriving, expanding, or very profitable concern or volume of trade. For example, After the storm they did a land-office business in snow shovels and rock salt. This term, dating from the 1830s, alludes to the throng of applicants to government land offices through which Western lands were sold. It has been used for other booming business since the mid-1800s.

---

Etymology

Origin of land-office business

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

Almost since the label was founded in 2008 it has done land-office business.

From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2014

Tucked away in Monterey, Calif.; Boaz, Ala.; Rockford, Mich.; Freeport, Me.; and a dozen odd small towns in between, scores of manufacturers' outlet stores are doing a land-office business by offering 25% to 70% savings.

From Time Magazine Archive

Jesse Jones's war-damage insurance corporation last week did a land-office business.

From Time Magazine Archive

California's plush new $1,750,000 inn at Mammoth Mountain was doing a land-office business.

From Time Magazine Archive

For days, department stores, electrical appliance stores, the Sherman Clay piano store, even the jewelry store Weisfield & Goldberg had been doing a land-office business selling new Philco 61F Olympic Special cabinet radios.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown