coffeehouse
Americannoun
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a public place that specializes in serving coffee and other refreshments and that sometimes provides informal entertainment.
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(in 17th- and 18th-century England) a similar establishment where groups met for a particular purpose, as for informal discussions or card playing.
verb (used without object)
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Informal. to engage in aimless talk or chitchat.
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Cards. to make remarks and gestures during play with the purpose of misleading opponents as to the cards one holds.
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Etymology
Origin of coffeehouse
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:
The beginning of my professional trajectory was spent in Paris, and there is such a coffeehouse culture in Paris, no?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
Between his coffeehouse, wife and three kids, it all got spent.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026
"In the mornings, when the school bus comes, dust rises everywhere," Polat, 52, told AFP at a local coffeehouse.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
Some customers agree that the strike is the thing keeping them from returning to the leather-clad clutches of the coffeehouse.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2025
When he’d stormed out, everyone at the coffeehouse had stared at Mister Hertzoon’s red, embarrassed face.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
Since Niccol’s appointment, Starbucks’s recent initiatives have included a $500 million investment in revamping its coffeehouses, something the company said is already paying off.
From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026
Ship-spotting got its start as gossip in London’s 17th-century coffeehouses when the newly imported drink became fashionable among the professional classes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
There’s also the fact that these new third-wave coffeehouses don’t have the pall of controversy surrounding them.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2025
“Our coffeehouses are centers of the community, and closing any location is difficult,” Niccol said in the message to employees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2025
The markets bustled with activity; the taverns and coffeehouses buzzed with conversation; the federal, state, and local governments took up the business they had left off in September.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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.
