mail-order house

American

noun

a retail firm that conducts its business by receiving orders and shipping its merchandise through the mail and that supplies its customers with catalogs, circulars, etc.

Etymology

Origin of mail-order house

An Americanism dating back to 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.

These outlines were sent to the mail-order house, and they sent you shoes to fit the brown wrapping-paper feet.

From Literature

But the brown paper outlines didn’t tell the mail-order house how fat your feet were on the top.

From Literature

He manipulated boxes of chocolate soldiers until they melted in his hands and then maneuvered in ranks of twelve a set of plastic cowboys he had bought from a mail-order house under an assumed name and kept locked away from everyone’s eyes during the day.

From Literature

Possibly it goes back to the Ming dynasty—whenever that was—or possibly it was purchased from a mail-order house in Chicago.

From Project Gutenberg

“I watched ’em come off the train in Yucca, and they looked like they’d just stepped out of a mail-order house catalogue.

From Project Gutenberg

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