delivery

noun de·liv·ery \ di-ˈli-v(ə-)rē , dē- \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of delivery

plural deliveries

: the act or manner of delivering something; also : something delivered

See delivery defined for English-language learners

See delivery defined for kids

Examples of delivery in a Sentence

The delivery is scheduled for this morning.
The company offers free delivery with orders over $100.
Someone has to be home to accept delivery of the package.
Allow six weeks for delivery.
The baby weighed almost seven pounds at the time of delivery.
The doctor expects it to be a routine delivery.
The doctor has had three deliveries today.
The joke was funny, but his delivery was terrible.
I need to work on my delivery before I give the speech.

Recent Examples of delivery from the Web

Tickets start at $50 and do not include delivery and preservation fees.

— marc bona, cleveland.com, "Beer calendar: Local brewery battle set, Masthead at Rozi's, Platform tap takeover, more," 9 Apr. 2018
Their findings: the jet that sprayed VX gas had experienced a malfunction in its delivery tanks and had accidentally released the gas at a much higher altitude than intended, allowing it to be blown far from the testing grounds.

— lorraine boissoneault, Smithsonian, "How the Death of 6,000 Sheep Spurred the American Debate on Chemical Weapons," 9 Apr. 2018
Subscribers to the $30-per-month service post snapshots of Ritual’s sleek yellow and white delivery box on their own feeds. ...

— cheryl wischhover, Vox, "Vitamins for your hair, nails, and skin are everywhere on Instagram. Don’t fall for them.," 9 Apr. 2018
Other more practical touches include three self-service product returns kiosks as well as same-day delivery for a $20 fee.

— phil wahba, Fortune, "Nordstrom's New Men's Store Is the First Step in Its Plan to Conquer New York," 9 Apr. 2018
As part of the Restock Kroger plan, the company will utilize more of its capital to fund technology and infrastructure upgrades … through services like curbside pickup, Scan, Bag, Go and delivery.

— john tuohy, Indianapolis Star, "Kroger drops plan for Fishers superstore and the Amazon-Whole Foods deal could be why," 9 Apr. 2018
Van plows into pedestrians in Germany A driver of a delivery truck plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in the German city of Muenster Saturday, killing at least 2 people and injuring 20 before fatally shooting himself, German officials said.

— USA TODAY, "Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend," 8 Apr. 2018
Argo is a multipurpose tunneling tool intended primarily to provide a secure channel for Web servers to connect to Cloudflare's content delivery network.

— sean gallagher, Ars Technica, "How to keep your ISP’s nose out of your browser history with encrypted DNS," 8 Apr. 2018
Elliott wanted to deliver the babies at 34 weeks, but a 29-week delivery was still longer than the national average of less than 27 weeks for quintuplets, Elliott said.

— melissa daniels, azcentral, "Quintuplets born at Phoenix hospital are 'angels'," 7 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'delivery.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of delivery

15th century

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

delivery Synonyms

Synonyms

childbearing, childbirth, labor, parturition, travail;

Related Words

birth pang, contraction, pains;

pregnancy;

abortion, miscarriage;

cesarean section (or caesarean section), natural childbirth;

childbed, confinement, lying-in;

Other Embryology Terms

gravid, neonate, ontogeny, parturition

DELIVERY Defined for English Language Learners

delivery

noun

Definition of delivery for English Language Learners

: the act of taking something to a person or place
: something that is taken to a person or place : something that is delivered
: the act or process of giving birth

DELIVERY Defined for Kids

delivery

noun de·liv·ery \ di-ˈli-və-rē , -ˈli-vrē \

Definition of delivery for Students

plural deliveries

1 : the transfer of something from one place or person to another

delivery of the mail

2 : a setting free from something that restricts or burdens

We prayed for delivery from our troubles.

3 : the act of giving birth

4 : speaking or manner of speaking (as of a formal speech) His passionate delivery stirred the audience.

5 : the act or way of throwing

an underhand delivery

Medical Dictionary

delivery

noun de·liv·ery \ di-ˈliv-(ə-)rē \

medical Definition of delivery

plural deliveries

1 : the act of giving birth : the expulsion or extraction of a fetus and its membranes : parturition

2 : the procedure of assisting birth of the fetus and expulsion of the placenta by manual, instrumental, or surgical means

Law Dictionary

delivery

noun de·liv·ery

legal Definition of delivery

plural deliveries

: an act that shows a transferor's intent to make a transfer of property (as a gift); especially : the transfer of possession or exclusive control of property to another

— actual delivery

: a delivery (as by hand or shipment) of actual physical property (as jewelry or stock certificates)

— conditional delivery

: a delivery after which ownership will be transferred upon fulfillment of a condition — compare gift causa mortis at gift

Note: A conditional delivery is usually made in order to make a transfer revocable.

— constructive delivery

: a delivery of a representation of property (as a written instrument) or means of possession (as a key) that is construed by a court as sufficient to show the transferor's intent or to put the property under the transferee's control — called also symbolic delivery