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.
-
of or indicating something, as an enterprise, investment, or project, that is independent, small in scope, and modestly financed.
noun
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.
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
“We kept talking about these tropes from ‘80s movies of slobs versus snobs,” and how it mirrored the mom-and-pop shop versus big business dynamic.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 2026
Giant multifamily firms are taking over more New York City apartments while mom-and-pop landlords struggle to stay afloat.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026
So, it created a new subsidiary called GenCo, whose sole purpose would be to serve the biggest customers, keeping the impact away from their normal mom-and-pop customers.
From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026
They won’t be open on Sunday, but I run up the drive of one that looks like a real mom-and-pop organization.
From "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven
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.
