special delivery

noun

1. (in the U.S. Postal Service) delivery of mail outside the regularly scheduled hours, by a special messenger, upon the payment of an extra fee.

special delivery

noun

1. the delivery of a piece of mail outside the time of a scheduled delivery

Other Word Forms

• special-delivery adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of special delivery¹

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85

Example Sentences

If they were stopped by police, they were to tell officers they were a special delivery crew transferring radioactive material from the Dounreay nuclear power plant, near Thurso, for disposal at another site.

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Planet Earth is about to receive a special delivery — the biggest sample yet from an asteroid.

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But the River Thames is perhaps the choice for the most special deliveries - including an optical atomic clock.

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My father handed his friend some money in an envelope and off he went to drop off some other special deliveries to his customers.

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In the next few days, Mr. Wiggins will receive a special delivery from New York City: the last of the goldfish from underneath the tuberculosis hospital.

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