Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The work of a colporteur.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The work carried on by colporteurs; the distribution by gift or sale of Bibles and other religious literature.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The distribution of religious books, tracts, etc., by colporteurs.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the distribution or selling of publications via carriers, particularly devotional literature

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1840s, from French colportage, from colporteur (1723).

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Examples

Comments

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  • Cheap popular literature originally sold by hawkers or itinerants called colporteurs.

    September 23, 2009

  • Definition should include perfoming covers of Cole Porter's music.

    September 23, 2009

  • See colporteur.

    September 24, 2009