open shop


noun
  1. a factory, office, or other business establishment in which a union, chosen by a majority of the employees, acts as representative of all the employees in making agreements with the employer, but in which union membership is not a condition of employment.

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Origin of open shop

1
First recorded in 1895–1900

Other words from open shop

  • open-shop, adjective
  • anti-open-shop, noun

Words Nearby open shop

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use open shop in a sentence

  • With these preparations the open shop forces were ready to go to still greater lengths to uphold "law and order!"

    The Everett massacre | Walker C. Smith

British Dictionary definitions for open shop

open shop

noun
  1. an establishment in which persons are hired and employed irrespective of their membership or nonmembership of a trade union: Compare closed shop, union shop

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for open shop

open shop

A business that employs both unionized and nonunionized labor.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.