cottage industry

American  

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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cottage industry British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of cottage industry

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cottage industry

In the intervening years, however, a cottage industry of compounding pharmacies emerged, including Ro and Hims & Hers Health.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

A whole cottage industry has also developed online to advise landlords how to flip rental properties.

From BBC ● May 20, 2026

With many of the fastest-growing companies remaining private for years, a cottage industry of secondary-share sale platforms has cropped up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

Kpler’s maps have since blanketed television news broadcasts, social-media feeds and traders’ terminals, turning obscure ships into objects of global fascination and drumming up enormous business for the cottage industry that tracks them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026

If eugenics was becoming a cottage industry in Germany, it was already a full-fledged national operation in America.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee