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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.

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

You may discover a cute coffee shop or yoga studio nearby that makes you even happier you chose this location.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 24, 2026

The first meeting of Martha Esquivias’ reading club LB Bookworms consisted of the club founder and one of her friends casually reading together at a coffee shop.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026

In the Netanyahu case, conspiracy theorists pointed to an AI detection tool that falsely labeled his coffee shop video as "96.9 percent AI-generated."

From Barron's • Apr. 2, 2026

It looked like something you’d see on a really cool chalkboard at a coffee shop.

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

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.