an order for goods received or shipped through the mail.
the business of selling merchandise through the mail.
an order for merchandise sent by post
a system of buying and selling merchandise through the post
( as modifier )
a mail-order firm
An Americanism dating back to 1865–70
First recorded in 1865–70
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She now has a team of 14 in the bakery, sends her biscuits all over the country, and has partnered with a mail order flower firm.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 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., is recalling 1.5-ounce Ground Cinnamon and 2.25-ounce Supreme Tradition Ground Cinnamon distributed nationwide and through mail order.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 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
He had quit my Aunt Mary’s by then and was working for the McCoy Publishing Company, a mail order business that supplied emblems, aprons, and books to the Masonic Order.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
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
That shift would help rural patients gain access to advanced treatments through mail-order pharmacies, rather than traveling hours to the nearest infusion center.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
But in between, Charlotte, now 43, says they fought over who got the first look at the mail-order catalogs that, at the time, were the first to cater specifically to a tween and teen-girl audience.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
