brick-and-mortar

adjective

brick-and-mor·​tar ˈbrik-ən(d)-ˈmȯr-tər 

variants or bricks-and-mortar

: relating to or being a traditional business serving customers in a building as contrasted to an online business

a brick-and-mortar store

Examples of brick-and-mortar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Fukala said the hope is that the Made In Elgin Retail Incubator Program will help businesses like Makinde’s grow from being market vendors into having bricks-and-mortar storefronts. — Mike Danahey, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2026

Joyce describes the opportunity as similar to what online retail did early in the Internet era, when e-commerce platforms reorganized the brick-and-mortar experience by owning the infrastructure underneath it. — Jason Phillips, USA Today, 18 June 2026

Nothing fancy or over the top—just a brick-and-mortar filled with thousands of small items to keep a home running. — Angela Tafoya, Vogue, 17 June 2026

This Canadian company has grown a steady following in recent years, so much so that the catalog has expanded into a store in Vancouver, Canada, and plans are underway to open brick-and-mortar locations on the West Coast in 2026. — Kelly Dawson, Architectural Digest, 17 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1975, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for brick-and-mortar

• colporteur
• exporter
• headquarter
• importer
• reporter
• supporter
• transporter
• mortar
• quarter
• shorter
• sorter