mail-order

[meyl-awr-der]

adjective

pertaining to or obtained by mail order: a dozen mail-order rosebushes.

verb (used with object)

to order (merchandise) by mail: to mail-order fruitcakes for Christmas.

Origin of mail-order

First recorded in 1865–70

mail order

noun

an order for goods received or shipped through the mail.

the business of selling merchandise through the mail.

Origin of mail order

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for mail-order

teleshopping

Examples from the Web for mail-order

Contemporary Examples of mail-order

Meet the psychics preying on the elderly with a mail-order moneymaking gig that netted them millions a year.
The Multimillion ‘Clairvoyance by Mail’ Scam
Jacob Siegel
November 21, 2014
The mail-order business took off, so he closed the magazine and started a record shop.
Can Richard Branson Bounce Back From His Space Disaster?
Tom Sykes
November 3, 2014
Jason is a particular breed himself, a mail-order salesman of animals.
The Weird Underground World of Urban Animal Husbandry
Dale Eisinger
May 19, 2014
Johnson has had his scandals, but he is not the kind of man to go out with a Russian mail-order bride.
Boris Johnson Is Right: Some Women Go to College to Find a Husband
Janine di Giovanni
July 9, 2013
Next to his desk, which does not have computer on it, swims a frog he grew from a mail-order tadpole.
Inside an Oklahoma Abortion Clinic
Allison Yarrow
January 22, 2013

Historical Examples of mail-order

I've got to make my own clothes, or take a long chance on a mail-order house.
Desert Conquest
A. M. Chisholm
To-day the mail-order lists are crammed with commodities that are different.
Post-Impressions
Simeon Strunsky
A stormy day or a series of them always helps the mail-order business.
Meteorology
Charles Fitzhugh Talman
Where is the new strike leader—the mail-order strike leader?
Windy McPherson's Son
Sherwood Anderson
Most of this is spent by women, who are largely caught by the mail-order 175 trade.
Carmen Ariza
Charles Francis Stocking

British Dictionary definitions for mail-order

mail order

noun

an order for merchandise sent by post

a system of buying and selling merchandise through the post
(as modifier)a mail-order firm

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mail-order

adj.

1875, from mail (n.1) + order. Before television and the Internet, the bane of retailers and shop-owners.

The origin, foundation and principle of mail order trading is universally recognized as wrong. It was conceived in iniquity and brought forth in despair as the world's greatest destructive medium. Mail Order Trading was born in the brain of knaves and thieves who fired their building for insurance profits, then sold the salvaged and damaged stock to the unsuspecting sons of man in distant territory. [Thomas J. Sullivan, "Merchants and Manufacturers on Trial," Chicago, 1914]