ma-and-pa
Americanadjective
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.
Lucky Strike: Not exactly the ma-and-pa bowling alley of your youth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2019
I miss drive-in theaters and “Gunsmoke” and ma-and-pa Italian joints.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2019
She’s fearsome but pragmatic: As the show has emphasized, perhaps too vigorously, the Gerhardt crime family is a ma-and-pa operation and Kansas City is the big box store coming to town.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2015
He didn't have figures for how many brokerages have closed in recent years, though he said the smaller ma-and-pa operations often have been the ones that "learned some tough lessons."
From Chicago Tribune ● Jul. 11, 2011
Some are ma-and-pa vintners with an annual capacity of 1,000 cases or less.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
