The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word SNAIL MAIL
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
S
N
A
I
L
M
A
I
L
More clues leading to the result SNAIL MAIL
- Householder, a manin traditional post
- Tibetan ascetic’s leader: ‘I’m all excited about international post‘
- Post delivered by householder?
- Post-hermaphrodite gender reported?
- The conventional postal service in Manila is bad, close to awful
- Worry after crawler initially misinterprets post
- Small secure protective cover for regular post
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Post delivered by householder" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case post delivered by householder = snail mail.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.