mail order

¹

noun

1. an order for goods received or shipped through the mail.
2. the business of selling merchandise through the mail.

mail-order

²

[ meyl-awr-der ]

adjective

1. pertaining to or obtained by mail order:

   a dozen mail-order rosebushes.

verb (used with object)

1. to order (merchandise) by mail:

   to mail-order fruitcakes for Christmas.

mail order

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of mail order¹

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Origin of mail order²

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

E-commerce and mail order use seven times more corrugated cardboard per dollar of sales than traditional retail does, according to Fastmarkets RISI, which tracks the industry.

From Time

It’s available by mail order via Goldbelly and also for immediate pick up at outposts of Lady M Confections across the country.

From The Daily Beast

Meet the psychics preying on the elderly with a mail-order moneymaking gig that netted them millions a year.

From The Daily Beast

The mail-order business took off, so he closed the magazine and started a record shop.

From The Daily Beast

Jason is a particular breed himself, a mail-order salesman of animals.

From The Daily Beast

Johnson has had his scandals, but he is not the kind of man to go out with a Russian mail-order bride.

From The Daily Beast

Next to his desk, which does not have computer on it, swims a frog he grew from a mail-order tadpole.

From The Daily Beast

Bud set him down on the bunk, gave him a mail-order catalogue to look at, and went out again into the storm.

From Project Gutenberg

That was a good initial effort, running down the opium pill mail-order enterprise.

From Project Gutenberg

Not so with the Enteronol Company—it is a mail-order business and the world is its territory.

From Project Gutenberg

It is only necessary to refer to The Journals recent article155 on the Turnock mail-order medical fraud to emphasize this fact.

From Project Gutenberg

Describe the necessary routine in entering and filling orders in a mail-order house shipping all goods by express.

From Project Gutenberg