general delivery
1
4.1
- noun
- /ˈdʒɛnərəl dɪˈvɛlɪri/
- US
:
correo general
- He received his important documents through general delivery at the local post office.
- general delivery mail
Examples
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Many travelers prefer general delivery to ensure their mail is secure until they arrive.
-
I sent it to a general delivery address, the one she gave.
-
Well, general delivery, Paris, I guess.
-
From there, general delivery will get this to you.
Fiction book (1990) -
So she asked the court whether she could send the notice by general delivery, where the post office holds mail until the recipient calls for it.
Academic text (2011) -
"Joseph and Tom got cards on their birthdays, and Julia said they could write to her care of general delivery, Ojai."
Fiction book (1993) -
You can pick up your mail at the post office using general delivery if you don't have a permanent address.
Synonyms
1
9.8
A service at a post office that keeps letters and parcels for someone to collect
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'general' (broad, for anyone) and 'delivery' (act of delivering mail) give a clue that this is a non‑specific or public form of mail delivery, so a learner can infer it relates to mail being made available rather than sent to a private address. However, the precise bureaucratic meaning — mail held at the post office for pickup — is a specific postal-service convention (often expressed differently across languages, e.g. 'poste restante') and may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
General delivery comes from an old post office practice: letters marked general and delivery were set aside at the public counter so anyone without a fixed address could pick them up. So today general delivery means mail held at the post office 'for people to collect' rather than being sent to an address.