window-shop

[ win-doh-shop ]

/ ˈwɪn doʊˌʃɒp /

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See synonyms for: window-shopper on Thesaurus.com

verb (used without object), win·dow-shopped, win·dow-shop·ping.

to look at articles in the windows of stores without making any purchases.

to examine or evaluate merchandise for possible purchase, use, etc.: Russian delegations are window-shopping in European factories.

verb (used with object), win·dow-shopped, win·dow-shop·ping.

to look at (merchandise) in the windows of stores without making any purchases: to window-shop shoes.

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Origin of window-shop

First recorded in 1925–30

OTHER WORDS FROM window-shop

window-shopper, noun

Words nearby window-shop

windowpane, Windows, window sash, window seat, window shade, window-shop, windowsill, window tax, windpipe, wind plant, wind-pollinated

How to use window-shop in a sentence

The interior video shows the gunman firing the shot through the window.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
I 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|DAILY BEAST
I fall back into a dream and then suddenly there is a tapping on the window just above my bed.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile|Robert Ward|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST

In fact, these kinds of advances helped give religion another huge window of opportunity for racial reconciliation in the 1960s.
No Gods, No Cops, No Masters|James Poulos|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
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 Blatchford
She had listened—she had listened intently, looking straight out of the window and without moving.
Confidence|Henry James
The east window in this church has been classed as the A1 of modern painted windows.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham|Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
The clerks had not arrived yet, and he beguiled the time by looking out of the staircase window.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2)|Charles Dickens
Then a fat, untidy old man appeared in the doorway of a cubicle within the shop, and Edwin Clayhanger blushed.
Hilda Lessways|Arnold Bennett

British Dictionary definitions for window-shop

window-shop

verb -shops, -shopping or -shopped

(intr) to look at goods in shop windows without buying them

Derived forms of window-shop

window-shopper, nounwindow-shopping, noun

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