shop

[ shop ]
See synonyms for: shopshopping on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a retail store, especially a small one.

  2. a small store or department in a large store selling a specific or select type of goods: the ski shop at Smith's.

  1. the workshop of a craftsperson or artisan.

  2. the workshop of a person who works in a manual trade; place for doing specific, skilled manual work: a carpenter's shop.

  3. any factory, office, or business: Our ad agency is a well-run shop.

  4. 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.

  5. one's trade, profession, or business as a subject of conversation or preoccupation.

verb (used without object),shopped, shop·ping.
  1. to visit shops and stores for purchasing or examining goods.

  2. to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale: Retail merchants often stock their stores by shopping in New York.

  1. to seek a bargain, investment, service, etc. (usually followed by for): I'm shopping for a safe investment that pays good interest.

verb (used with object),shopped, shop·ping.
  1. to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale in or by: She's shopping the shoe stores this afternoon.

  2. Chiefly British Informal.

    • to put into prison; jail.

    • to behave treacherously toward; inform on; betray.

  1. Slang. to try to sell (merchandise or a project) in an attempt to obtain an order or contract.

interjection
  1. (used in a store, shop, etc., in calling an employee to wait on a customer.)

Idioms about shop

  1. set up shop, to go into business; begin business operations: to set up shop as a taxidermist.

  2. 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.

  1. talk shop, to discuss one's trade, profession, or business: After dinner we all sat around the table and talked shop.

Origin of shop

1
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”

Other 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

British Dictionary definitions for shop

shop

/ (ʃɒp) /


noun
  1. a place, esp a small building, for the retail sale of goods and services

  2. an act or instance of shopping, esp household shopping: the weekly shop

  1. a place for the performance of a specified type of work; workshop

  2. 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

  3. shut up shop

    • to close business at the end of the day or permanently

    • to become defensive or inactive

  4. talk shop to speak about one's work, esp when meeting socially, sometimes with the effect of excluding those not similarly employed

verbshops, shopping or shopped
  1. (intr often foll by for) to visit a shop or shops in search of (goods) with the intention of buying them

  2. (tr) slang, mainly British to inform on or betray, esp to the police

Origin of shop

1
Old English sceoppa stall, booth; related to Old High German scopf shed, Middle Dutch schoppe stall

Collins 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

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.