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• mail order
  mail order

  noun

  an order for goods received or shipped through the mail.
• mail-order
  mail-order

  adjective

  pertaining to or obtained by mail order.

mail order

¹ American  

noun

1. an order for goods received or shipped through the mail.

2. the business of selling merchandise through the mail.

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mail-order ² American  

[mayl-awr-der] / ˈmeɪlˌɔr dər /

adjective

1. pertaining to or obtained by mail order.

   a dozen mail-order rosebushes.

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verb (used with object)

1. to order (merchandise) by mail.

   to mail-order fruitcakes for Christmas.

mail order British  

noun

1. an order for merchandise sent by post

2. 1. a system of buying and selling merchandise through the post

   2. ( as modifier )

      a mail-order firm

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Etymology

Origin of mail order¹

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Origin of mail-order²

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mail order mail-order

Rosalba worked in the accounting department of a mail order catalog company and later helped her husband run a mechanic shop in Granada Hills.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026

To determine whether a pharmacy service was mail order, in-person or another type, the analysis used the classification listed in the record of each prescription.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025

Colonna Brothers of North Bergen, N.J., recalled 1.5-ounce Ground Cinnamon and 2.25-ounce Supreme Tradition Ground Cinnamon distributed nationwide and through mail order.

From Salon ● Nov. 12, 2024

We get all of our car rentals from Costco, and we first started using the Costco pharmacy in the warehouse but now we get it all mail order from Costco, and that’s a tremendous saving.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2023

Columbia was then — as it is now — one of the largest mail order clubs in the world, and Wunderman had handled the company’s advertising since it was formed in the 1950s.

From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

A London shop catering for people who are left-handed was doing a brisk trade both in-store and via mail-order.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

Flipping through them three decades on, she realized what made dELiA*s and its ilk so different from the other mail-order catalogs that materialized every few months in her family’s mail pile like L.L.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026

Neill plays the awkward, ignorant Scottish farmer who arranges for a mail-order marriage with Holly Hunter’s mute pianist and then becomes possessive and driven to jealous despair.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

The consumer’s arrival was heralded on Wall Street in 1906 by the $40 million IPO of Sears, Roebuck, whose mail-order catalog brought store goods to even isolated rural homes.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

Later, when Ned’s eighteen-year-old sister, Gertrude, moved to Chicago, Holmes asked to hire her as well, to manage his new mail-order medicine company.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson