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cottage industry

noun
  1. the production, for sale, of goods at home, as the making of handicrafts by rural families.
  2. any small-scale, loosely organized industry.
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Origin of cottage industry

First recorded in 1920–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cottage industry

Historical Examples of cottage industry

  • And individuals can make their own solar cookers easily, or start a cottage-industry to manufacture them for others.

    The BYU Solar Cooker/Cooler

    Steven E. Jones

British Dictionary definitions for cottage industry

cottage industry

noun
  1. an industry in which employees work in their own homes, often using their own equipment
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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