traveling salesman

American  

noun

1. a male representative of a business firm who travels in an assigned territory soliciting orders for a company's products or services.

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Usage

What does traveling salesman mean? A traveling salesman is a man whose job is to sell products or services by traveling to different places, often within a certain region or assigned territory. A traveling salesman can be called a traveling salesperson. The equivalent term for a woman is traveling saleswoman. The plural of salesman is salesmen. A salesman is often said to “work in sales”—in which sales refers to the type of occupation or the division or department within a company. The term salesman can refer to a man who sells directly to customers or to other businesses or organizations. Sometimes, salespersons sell things in person, such as at a retail store or dealership. They also commonly sell things over the phone or by communicating with people online. A traveling salesman, though, typically meets with potential customers in person—this is often the whole point of traveling. In the past, it was common for some salesmen to travel door-to-door to make sales to people at home. Some traveling salesmen are door-to-door salesmen, while others may simply visit customers along a specific route. For example, a traveling salesman who sells wholesale food products may visit all of the restaurants within an area. The traveling salesman problem refers to a math problem that involves determining the shortest route through several points. It’s sometimes called the traveling salesperson problem. Example: To be a successful traveling salesman, you have to know the territory and the people in it.

Etymology

Origin of traveling salesman

An Americanism dating back to 1875–80

Example Sentences

The daughter of a traveling salesman, Flores grew up modestly in the cinder block hills of Catia, a hardscrabble district of western Caracas.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026

Chuck Taylor was a semi-pro basketball player and traveling salesman for the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in the early 1920s when he designed the shoe.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 25, 2025

Priscilla’s mother, the big-name literary agent Lynn Nesbit, was the daughter of a traveling salesman “who wore cardigans” and a “dutiful housewife who taught Sunday school and thought Nixon had been wronged.”

From Washington Post • Feb. 14, 2023

Set in the future — which looks like a mashup of “The Jetsons” and “Pleasantville,” Crudup plays Jack, a traveling salesman of lunar timeshares.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2023

Aureliano Segundo was so enthusiastic over the progress of his daughter that from a traveling salesman he bought a six-volume English encyclopedia with many color prints which Meme read in her spare time.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez