shop
a retail store, especially a small one.
a small store or department in a large store selling a specific or select type of goods: the ski shop at Smith's.
the workshop of a craftsperson or artisan.
the workshop of a person who works in a manual trade; place for doing specific, skilled manual work: a carpenter's shop.
any factory, office, or business: Our ad agency is a well-run shop.
Education.
a course of instruction in a trade, as carpentry, printing, etc., consisting chiefly of training in the use of its tools and materials.
a classroom in which such a course is given.
one's trade, profession, or business as a subject of conversation or preoccupation.
to visit shops and stores for purchasing or examining goods.
to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale: Retail merchants often stock their stores by shopping in New York.
to seek a bargain, investment, service, etc. (usually followed by for): I'm shopping for a safe investment that pays good interest.
to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale in or by: She's shopping the shoe stores this afternoon.
Chiefly British Informal.
to put into prison; jail.
to behave treacherously toward; inform on; betray.
Slang. to try to sell (merchandise or a project) in an attempt to obtain an order or contract.
(used in a store, shop, etc., in calling an employee to wait on a customer.)
Idioms about shop
set up shop, to go into business; begin business operations: to set up shop as a taxidermist.
shut up shop,
to close a business temporarily, as at the end of the day.
to suspend business operations permanently: They couldn't make a go of it and had to shut up shop.
talk shop, to discuss one's trade, profession, or business: After dinner we all sat around the table and talked shop.
Origin of shop
1Other words from shop
- in·ter·shop, adjective
Words Nearby shop
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use shop in a sentence
The deal, struck in November 2019, ran into trouble after coronavirus-related lockdowns closed shops around the world and curbed international travel, hitting demand for luxury goods.
When two restaurants and a small retail shop all closed within a year of one another, my weekend sales dropped approximately 25 percent.
Myths and Shame Shouldn’t Guide Cannabis Regulations | John Bertsch | September 8, 2020 | Voice of San DiegoPreviously, masks were required only on public transport, in shops, and in some school contexts.
Five days is long enough for a coronavirus quarantine, says Germany’s top virologist | David Meyer | September 2, 2020 | FortuneThe way customers shop has drastically changed during the pandemic so we needed to make sure our benefits addressed their top concerns and that we had an offering that was ready and available to them.
Before getting this recommendation from a colleague, I was buying masks piecemeal from Etsy sellers and various shops, but I hadn’t found one that I felt fit right.
Finding the shop is a trip in itself and an introduction to a slice of history.
The Photographer Who Gave Up Manhattan for Marrakech | Liza Foreman | January 6, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTI suspect [Teresa] will get money sent in to her, so she can shop at the commissary.
How a ‘Real Housewife’ Survives Prison: ‘I Don’t See [Teresa Giudice] Having a Cakewalk Here’ | Michael Howard | January 6, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTThe rapid rise of the sharing economy is changing the way people around the world commute, shop, vacation, and borrow.
Why Do ‘Progressives’ Want to Ban Uber and AirBnB? | Adam Thierer, Christopher Koopman | December 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI remember being appalled that he killed off Little Nell in The Old Curiosity shop.
They were getting more imaginative,” a pawn shop owner thinks of his addict customers in “Back of Beyond.
But at the instant I caught a sight of my counterfeit presentment in a shop window, and veiled my haughty crest.
God and my Neighbour | Robert BlatchfordThen a fat, untidy old man appeared in the doorway of a cubicle within the shop, and Edwin Clayhanger blushed.
Hilda Lessways | Arnold BennettShe wore a little red hood, and looked wistfully after Davy as the shop went out of sight.
Davy and The Goblin | Charles E. CarrylRobin Hood stared at him for a moment with a puzzled expression, and then walked into his little shop, and Davy turned away.
Davy and The Goblin | Charles E. CarrylHis shop is the Randenvous of spitting, where men dialogue with their noses, and their conversation is smoke.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce | E. R. Billings.
British Dictionary definitions for shop
/ (ʃɒp) /
a place, esp a small building, for the retail sale of goods and services
an act or instance of shopping, esp household shopping: the weekly shop
a place for the performance of a specified type of work; workshop
all over the shop informal
in disarray: his papers were all over the shop
in every direction: I've searched for it all over the shop
shut up shop
to close business at the end of the day or permanently
to become defensive or inactive
talk shop to speak about one's work, esp when meeting socially, sometimes with the effect of excluding those not similarly employed
(intr often foll by for) to visit a shop or shops in search of (goods) with the intention of buying them
(tr) slang, mainly British to inform on or betray, esp to the police
Origin of shop
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with shop
In addition to the idiom beginning with shop
- shop around
also see:
- bull in a china shop
- close up (shop)
- set up (shop)
- shut up (shop)
- talk shop
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Browse