mom-and-pop
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a small retail business, usually owned and operated by members of a family.
a mom-and-pop grocery.
-
of or indicating something, as an enterprise, investment, or project, that is independent, small in scope, and modestly financed.
noun
plural
mom-and-popsEtymology
Origin of mom-and-pop
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The biggest chunk of that appears to be smaller mom-and-pop landlords rather than giant corporations.
From Los Angeles Times
Many mobile-home communities have gone from mom-and-pop operations to corporate ownership, resulting in regular rent increases, he said.
The administration wants to keep small mom-and-pop landlords in business but hasn’t decided how big of a landlord is too big, he said.
Even though nearly a third of single-family homes in the third quarter of 2025 were bought by investors, most of these investors were small, mom-and-pop landlords and not large institutional ones, data shows.
From MarketWatch
Overall as of the third quarter, which ended in September 2025, about 30% of single-family homes were purchased by investors, but those were mostly mom-and-pop landlords, according to data from real-estate firm Cotality.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
