five-and-dime
Americannoun
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a variety store that sells small, inexpensive items.
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a thing, situation, or practice in which a 5 is followed by a 10, such as a golf hole that is best played with a 5 iron and then a 10 iron, or judging a screenplay based on its first 5 and last 10 pages (often used attributively).
adjective
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relating to or being a variety store that sells small items at low prices.
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inexpensive and of poor quality; cheap or lacking in class and sophistication.
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.
Newberry’s five-and-dime store, she worked for a month and a half to pay it off in installments, wearing it for years until it all but disintegrated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
Randy Blevins, 70, had worked at the Walmart for more than 30 years after owning his own five-and-dime store.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2022
Comparing traditional schools to “the five-and-dime down the street” is an insult and perpetuates misconceptions.
From Washington Post ● May 3, 2022
Born in New York on June 6, 1933, Broad was an only child who grew up in Detroit, where his Lithuanian immigrant father, Leon, worked as a house painter before operating several five-and-dime stores.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2021
Now the diminutive freshman waited nervously in his dorm room, dressed in his best suit and preparing to risk everything for the right to order a cup of coffee at a five-and-dime lunch counter.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
