shop
Americannoun
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a retail store, especially a small one.
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a small store or department in a large store selling a specific or select type of goods.
the ski shop at Smith's.
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the workshop of a craftsperson or artisan.
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the workshop of a person who works in a manual trade; place for doing specific, skilled manual work.
a carpenter's shop.
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any factory, office, or business.
Our ad agency is a well-run shop.
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Education.
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a course of instruction in a trade, as carpentry, printing, etc., consisting chiefly of training in the use of its tools and materials.
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a classroom in which such a course is given.
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one's trade, profession, or business as a subject of conversation or preoccupation.
verb (used without object)
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to visit shops and stores for purchasing or examining goods.
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to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale.
Retail merchants often stock their stores by shopping in New York.
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to seek a bargain, investment, service, etc. (usually followed byfor ).
I'm shopping for a safe investment that pays good interest.
verb (used with object)
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to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale in or by.
She's shopping the shoe stores this afternoon.
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Chiefly British Informal.
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to put into prison; jail.
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to behave treacherously toward; inform on; betray.
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Slang. to try to sell (merchandise or a project) in an attempt to obtain an order or contract.
interjection
idioms
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set up shop, to go into business; begin business operations.
to set up shop as a taxidermist.
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talk shop, to discuss one's trade, profession, or business.
After dinner we all sat around the table and talked shop.
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shut up shop,
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to close a business temporarily, as at the end of the day.
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to suspend business operations permanently.
They couldn't make a go of it and had to shut up shop.
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noun
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a place, esp a small building, for the retail sale of goods and services
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an act or instance of shopping, esp household shopping
the weekly shop
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a place for the performance of a specified type of work; workshop
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informal
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in disarray
his papers were all over the shop
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in every direction
I've searched for it all over the shop
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to close business at the end of the day or permanently
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to become defensive or inactive
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to speak about one's work, esp when meeting socially, sometimes with the effect of excluding those not similarly employed
verb
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to visit a shop or shops in search of (goods) with the intention of buying them
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slang (tr) to inform on or betray, esp to the police
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shopsimple
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shopssimple
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have shoppedperfect
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has shoppedperfect
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am shoppingprogressive
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are shoppingprogressive
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is shoppingprogressive
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have been shoppingperfect progressive
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has been shoppingperfect progressive
Past
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shoppedsimple
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had shoppedperfect
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was shoppingprogressive
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were shoppingprogressive
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had been shoppingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shop
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English shoppe (noun), Old English sceoppa “booth”; akin to scypen “stall” ( see shippon), German Schopf “lean-to,” Schuppen “shed”
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.
See Examples For:
Mottet so far has received a $10 gift card in exchange for posts including videos of her trying on new clothes in a Target changing room and a roundup of her weekly Target shop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Hiroki Suzuka, who manages a coffee shop opposite the road where the Fujisawa mosque is set to be built, calls for greater understanding and dialogue.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The project’s final interview was at a bagel shop in Columbia, S.C., in June, weeks before his death.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Others helped shut the shop, trapping the leopard inside.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
“Just wait till you see what’s for dessert this noon!” she’d tell us at the breakfast table, and all morning in the shop the question would shimmer in the back of our minds.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
She visits charity shops every week and loves the "treasure hunt" feel of finding a bargain.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
The restaurant’s building is set to be demolished shortly after its final day of operation as part of the $600-million revitalization project that will modernize the harbor and bring new restaurants, hotels and shops.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
New commercial development is on the way that will add more shops and restaurants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The number of independent shops opened in the last decade marks a stunning turnaround from the early Amazon years, when the online bookseller put an estimated 43% of stores out of business.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
The flashes of blue on our walk were subliminal reminders of the sea that circled the shops and houses in town.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
According to Mintel research from July 2025, 32% of women aged 16-34 who buy clothes online said they had shopped at Shein during the previous year.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
He shopped around to find the lowest rate, and opted for an ARM that had a fixed period of five years — the amount of time he planned to spend in the current home.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
In the wake of rising grocery prices and economic anxiety, some low-income customers who would once have shopped at budget grocery chains such as Grocery Outlet are turning to food banks instead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Over the past two years, the organization openly shopped for what it called a new “steward”—language that left the door open to a sale.
From Slate ● May 8, 2026
He would spend too much if he shopped alone.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Its AI tool has been learning behaviour patterns from cameras in public facilities such as shopping centres and stations.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
The 32-year-old from Salford has been shopping at the fashion retailer since she was 16, picking up jeans, T-shirts and beauty products.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Instead of relying on a single provider, they’re increasingly mixing lower-priced models, including some built in China, alongside products from OpenAI and Anthropic and shopping a la carte for AI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
In many cases, they are adding the new, cheaper models alongside OpenAI and Anthropic’s products, shopping a la carte for their artificial intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Mr. Shareef hopped out of the truck with his arms full of shopping bags.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
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.
