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Glite Dictionary
📦 An out-of-stock order 📦 To request later delivery
back order

back order

3 3.5
An order for goods not in stock that are sent later
  • noun
  • /ˈbæk ˈɔrdər/
translation icon : pedido pendiente
  • The new smartphone model is currently on back order, so customers will have to wait a few weeks for delivery.
  • back-order policy
  • now on back order

Examples

  • They charged me right away and have it sitting on back order.

    Blog text (28)

  • Also, I did find one set that I like, but I was told they can't deliver for 7-8 weeks due to back order.

    Blog text (14)

  • -Well, it's on back order.

    Bull Durham (1988)

  • Those particular parts are in high demand right now, were on back order, and took two days longer to reach us than they should have.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Could this be done by monitoring the back order status for new units?

    Blog text (28)

  • I had a table custom made for me; it took 8 weeks, but if something is on back order, remember they have to fill all orders on that particular piece of furniture that customers prior to you ordered before they can fill yours.

    Blog text (14)

  • - Every place I went to had the newest tablet on back-order since October.

    Christmas on the Bayou (2013)

  • Before its introductory tour was even complete, Motor Coach had two months' worth of back orders, and the coach is now in full-scale production, with up to 10 vehicles rolling off the assembly line each week.

    Academic text (1998)

  • We sold through them in, I don't know, we can't keep them in stock for more than a week it seems like, but they're on back order again on the store.

  • Everything's on back-order.

    Shall We Dance? (2004)

Antonyms

in stock
25 1.4

Available to buy now because a store has it

Surface Forms

back order singular
back orders plural

Morphology

back + order

The element 'order' clearly means a customer request and the phrase uses 'back' in the sense of delayed or outstanding supply, so a learner can partly infer that it involves requesting goods to be delivered later. However, the specific commercial sense and the required sense of 'back' (deferred/outstanding) are somewhat specialized and not the most salient meaning of 'back' for learners, so the exact meaning likely requires exposure.

Etymology

Back order comes from the image of putting an order at the back of the list when a shop has no stock. So a back order means 'an order that will be delivered later'.