mom-and-pop
Americanadjective
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of or relating to a small retail business, usually owned and operated by members of a family.
a mom-and-pop grocery.
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of or indicating something, as an enterprise, investment, or project, that is independent, small in scope, and modestly financed.
noun
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mom-and-pops
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mom-and-pop
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
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.
See Examples For:
Indian mom-and-pop investors who put their money into the Nifty have seen their wealth erode by about 15% this year.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
This isn’t an argument for turning every anonymous strip mall back into a village of idiosyncratic mom-and-pop shops.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
If you want to preserve the homely, mom-and-pop feeling of picking out your own merchandise and contemplating the value of a dollar before you enter your credit card info, Amazon is there for you.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
Plus, surging labor and input costs have left mom-and-pop convenience stores with no choice but to raise fuel prices to compensate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Instead of the franchised blandness of American cities, Alexandria is a city of mom-and-pop stores, all with signage screaming for attention, their wares encroaching on the streets.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
“If this doesn’t get solved, then these places will only be viable for the highest value-add companies. A lot of your mom-and-pops won’t be able to do it.”
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
Landlord advocates tend to conceptualize mom-and-pops and noncorporate landlords.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
“That means opportunities for mom-and-pops and online solutions, although we never really knew the profitability of it.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
Most of the restaurants on Mr. Doss’s list are mom-and-pops and walk-ins.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2023
A cook with insatiable curiosity, he's trained not just in fine-dining restaurants but in Houston's Korean grocery stores, Vietnamese noodle shops, Indian kitchens and Chinese mom-and-pops.
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2022
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.
