shop
Americannoun
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shops
plural
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a retail store, especially a small one.
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a small store or department in a large store selling a specific or select type of goods.
the ski shop at Smith's.
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the workshop of a craftsperson or artisan.
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the workshop of a person who works in a manual trade; place for doing specific, skilled manual work.
a carpenter's shop.
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any factory, office, or business.
Our ad agency is a well-run shop.
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Education.
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a course of instruction in a trade, as carpentry, printing, etc., consisting chiefly of training in the use of its tools and materials.
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a classroom in which such a course is given.
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one's trade, profession, or business as a subject of conversation or preoccupation.
verb (used without object)
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shops,
present (3rd person singular)
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shopped,
past participle, past
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shopping
present participle
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to visit shops and stores for purchasing or examining goods.
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to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale.
Retail merchants often stock their stores by shopping in New York.
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to seek a bargain, investment, service, etc. (usually followed byfor ).
I'm shopping for a safe investment that pays good interest.
verb (used with object)
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shops,
present (3rd person singular)
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shopped,
past participle, past
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shopping
present participle
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to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale in or by.
She's shopping the shoe stores this afternoon.
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Chiefly British Informal.
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to put into prison; jail.
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to behave treacherously toward; inform on; betray.
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Slang. to try to sell (merchandise or a project) in an attempt to obtain an order or contract.
interjection
idioms
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set up shop, to go into business; begin business operations.
to set up shop as a taxidermist.
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talk shop, to discuss one's trade, profession, or business.
After dinner we all sat around the table and talked shop.
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shut up shop,
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to close a business temporarily, as at the end of the day.
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to suspend business operations permanently.
They couldn't make a go of it and had to shut up shop.
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noun
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a place, esp a small building, for the retail sale of goods and services
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an act or instance of shopping, esp household shopping
the weekly shop
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a place for the performance of a specified type of work; workshop
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informal
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in disarray
his papers were all over the shop
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in every direction
I've searched for it all over the shop
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to close business at the end of the day or permanently
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to become defensive or inactive
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to speak about one's work, esp when meeting socially, sometimes with the effect of excluding those not similarly employed
verb
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to visit a shop or shops in search of (goods) with the intention of buying them
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slang (tr) to inform on or betray, esp to the police
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shopsimple
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shopssimple
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have shoppedperfect
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has shoppedperfect
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am shoppingprogressive
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are shoppingprogressive
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is shoppingprogressive
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have been shoppingperfect progressive
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has been shoppingperfect progressive
Past
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shoppedsimple
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had shoppedperfect
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was shoppingprogressive
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were shoppingprogressive
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had been shoppingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shop
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English shoppe (noun), Old English sceoppa “booth”; akin to scypen “stall” ( see shippon), German Schopf “lean-to,” Schuppen “shed”
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:
But over the past decade it has gradually added slightly higher-priced, style-forward items in an effort to appeal to more customers who might also shop at Gap, J.Crew or Nordstrom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
I often told a story: People in my shop went to some program one time, and we were sitting back in coach, of course.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
"It's going to just be amazing. The sights, the sounds, the smells. It's all going to be just wonderful," said Neva Hoover, 58, from Ohio, who owns of an auto body repair shop.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
The same goes for knowing to shop around for car insurance, understanding cash inflows and outflows so they don’t spend more than they earn, and choosing to invest money wisely to meet their goals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Before she opened her beauty shop, Aunt J used to temp for various businesses.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Over the years, Barton scoured antique shops, bookshops and auctions to add to his collection, which has grown to about 100,000 artifacts owned by Barton and his son Tim.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
When customers come to Adeyemo’s online shops, he says they are looking for something they can’t find anywhere else.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
It’s set in Los Angeles but the cafés and shops are obviously not local and the worst, most dated stock L.A. traffic footage can’t cover that up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
They are expected to settle down on the Saturday and Sunday but shops and supermarkets are expected to be busier than usual.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The only real tragedy was that there were no chocolate shops.
From "Keep It Together, Keiko Carter" by Debbi Michiko Florence
But steep price hikes in recent years have created millions of “orphaned” luxury consumers who formerly shopped at Louis Vuitton or Gucci and can no longer afford to.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
According to Mintel research from July 2025, 32% of women aged 16-34 who buy clothes online said they had shopped at Shein during the previous year.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
In the wake of rising grocery prices and economic anxiety, some low-income customers who would once have shopped at budget grocery chains such as Grocery Outlet are turning to food banks instead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
If you haven’t shopped around for car insurance in a while, for example, this would be a good time to see if you can lower that cost.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
The sale had gone through quickly, and Immie and her friends had shopped in the Portobello Road market for antiques and in Harrods for textiles.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
Target’s chief merchandising officer, Cara Sylvester, noted that the retailer had “enhanced the shopping experience with AI-powered teacher and college wish lists and more personalized content on our app’s home screen.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The assumption was built into the feature: We have already begun shopping for you.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
During the VTM documentary, Clément described meeting the prince unexpectedly in a shopping centre in 2013, without realising who he was.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
It is to include more than 3,000 residential units, entertainment venues, parkland, a hotel, restaurants and extensive shopping.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
A woman passing by with shopping on her arm gives me and my half-braided hair a long look.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
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.
