mortar (redirected from mortars)

brick(s)-and-mortar

[of commercial establishements] based in buildings rather than relying on online sales over the Internet. Many of the dot-com business owners have never been involved in a brick-and-mortar business.

See also: brick

bricks and mortar

buildings; the expenditure of money on buildings rather than something else. (The buildings referred to can be constructed out of anything.) The new president of the college preferred to invest in new faculty members rather than bricks and mortar. Sometimes people are happy to donate millions of dollars for bricks and mortar, but they never think of the additional cost of annual maintenance.

See also: and, brick