grocer

[groh-ser]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR grocer ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the owner or operator of a store that sells general food supplies and certain nonedible articles of household use, as soaps and paper products.

Origin of grocer

1325–75; Middle English < Old French gross(i)er wholesale merchant. See gross, -er²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for grocer

grocer, merchant, vendor, seller, entrepreneur, proprietor, businessperson, salesperson, dealer, retailer, wholesaler

Examples from the Web for grocer

Contemporary Examples of grocer

The grocer associations and food companies face a political conundrum.
Supermarkets and Retailers Turn Blind Eye to Food Stamp Funding Cuts
Miranda Green
September 27, 2013
Costco is doing very well for a grocer, but very poorly for a department store, the category to which Walmart technically belongs.
Why Can’t Walmart Be More Like Costco?
Megan McArdle
November 26, 2012
At Walmart, which is many peoples' grocer, clothier, and auto supply shop, long lines would cost them a lot of business.
Why Can’t Walmart Be More Like Costco?
Megan McArdle
November 26, 2012
In the essay, Havel imagines a grocer hanging a "Workers of the World, Unite!"
John Avlon: Vaclav Havel's Heroic Politics of Truth and Responsibility
John Avlon
December 19, 2011
Barthelemy moved into her $800-a-month apartment after a Bangladeshi friend saw an ad at the grocer on the corner.
The Serial Killer Victim's Secret Life
Christine Pelisek, Roja Heydarpour
April 24, 2011

Historical Examples of grocer

The retailer is the grocer, the butcher, or the green grocer.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
From the jobber they go to the grocer, who delivers them to the consumer.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
Mr. Jenkins, the grocer, rented a cutaway, and bought a new Panama to wear with it.
K
Mary Roberts Rinehart
We may then expect to find Cantal cheese at every English grocer's.
The Roof of France
Matilda Betham-Edwards
"I could have been a grocer if I'd wanted to," John continued.
The Foolish Lovers
St. John G. Ervine

British Dictionary definitions for grocer

grocer

noun

a dealer in foodstuffs and other household supplies

Word Origin for grocer

C15: from Old French grossier, from gros large; see gross

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

Word Origin and History for grocer

early 15c. (mid-13c. as a surname), "one who buys and sells in gross," from Anglo-French grosser, Old French grossier, from Medieval Latin grossarius "wholesaler," literally "dealer in quantity," from Late Latin grossus "coarse (of food), great, gross" (see gross). Sense of "a merchant selling individual items of food" is 16c.