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Synonyms

coffee shop

American  

noun

  1. a small, usually inexpensive, restaurant where refreshments and light meals are served.


coffee shop British  

noun

  1. a shop where coffee is sold or drunk

"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

Etymology

Origin of coffee shop

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

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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 quality, he says over a bottle of San Pellegrino at a coffee shop in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant on a sunny April afternoon, is “subconscious.”

From Salon • May 15, 2026

One afternoon, I went to a coffee shop in Santa Monica where a middle-aged red-headed guy with a beard was playing Van Morrison songs on his guitar.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

Birgit White, who works at a Main Street coffee shop and has lived in Festus since the 1980s, said she clips everything she reads about data centers out of the newspaper.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026

“Leave those boxes unpacked and get out of your home. Join a class, walk to a coffee shop or hang out at the library.”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 22, 2026

The doctors encouraged her to take a rest—Ernest would be slow coming out of sedation, they said—so she repaired to a late-night coffee shop.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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