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
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.
The rise of the NSE, meanwhile, mirrors the explosion of retail investing in India, as millions of mom-and-pop investors entered the stock market during the pandemic.
From BBC • Jun. 30, 2026
Saglimbene also thinks SpaceX’s bid for mom-and-pop investors will spill over into the Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs if SpaceX gets a standing ovation.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
But Mr. Tupy left out an unintentional consequence of Amazon’s global dominance—the demise of countless neighborhood shops, the proverbial mom-and-pop stores, not to mention the loss of many jobs at the large brick-and-mortar retailers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026
Excluding mom-and-pop shops and small businesses, essentially every store expects to lose a certain amount of money in merchandise each fiscal year.
From Salon • May 22, 2026
Alexa’s mom drops us off in Sausalito at Frank’s Diner, a little mom-and-pop hole-in-the-wall with red vinyl barstools and a sweet view of the bay.
From "The House That Lou Built" by Mae Respicio
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.
