mail-order bride

Slang

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

a wife courted by correspondence, as through a matrimonial agency.

Quotations

1958

Some of the women were "mail order" wives and appeared to be quite content with their choice.

1962

Some of them were mail-order brides who answered advertisements inserted by ranchers in the lonely hearts columns of eastern newspapers.

1965

Only with the coming of the women, many of them mail-order brides, did the amenities of civilization begin to appear.