mail-order bride

American

[mayl-awr-der brahyd] / ˈmeɪlˌɔr dər ˌbraɪd /

noun

a woman who solicits or accepts a contractual marriage arranged by an agency or brokerage after a period of long-distance courtship, traditionally by written correspondence.

Etymology

Origin of mail-order bride

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

mail-order bride

I was a reverse mail-order bride, born in Belarus, now an American.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2025

Mrs. MacLachlan said the book was inspired by a story her mother had told her about a “wonderful woman who came into the family” as a mail-order bride.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2022

The mom comes to the U.S. as a mail-order bride of a Microsoft executive, played by Dan Lauria.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 24, 2022

As family lore had it, her maternal great-great-grandmother Theressa Finkas emigrated from Germany to Washington State in 1879, as a mail-order bride.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 11, 2019

Pennsatucky is dejected about losing her friends, Healy is dejected about his mail-order bride, Caputo is dejected about Fischer.

From New York Times ● Jun. 24, 2014

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023