Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small retail store or a specialty department in a large store.
  • noun An atelier; a studio.
  • noun A place for manufacturing or repairing goods or machinery.
  • noun A commercial or industrial establishment.
  • noun A business establishment; an office or a center of activity.
  • noun A home workshop.
  • noun A schoolroom fitted with machinery and tools for instruction in industrial arts.
  • noun The industrial arts as a technical science or course of study.
  • intransitive verb To visit stores in search of merchandise or bargains.
  • intransitive verb To look for something with the intention of acquiring it.
  • intransitive verb To visit or buy from (a particular store).
  • idiom (talk shop) To talk about one's work.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To visit shops or stores for the purpose of purchasing or examining goods.
  • To shut up; put behind bars; imprison.
  • noun A booth or stall where wares were usually both made and displayed for sale.
  • noun A building, or a room or suite of rooms, appropriated to the selling of wares at retail.
  • noun [In the rural districts and smaller towns of the United States the term store takes almost exclusively the place of the British shop, but the latter word is in occasional and increasing use in this sense in large cities.
  • noun A room or building in which the making, preparing, or repairing of any article is carried on, or in which any industry is pursued: as, a machine-shop; a repair-shop; a barber's shop; a carpenter's shop.
  • noun Hence, figuratively The place where anything is made; the producing place or source.
  • noun In glass-making, a team or set of workmen. See the quotation.
  • noun One's own business, craft, calling, or profession; also, talk specifically relating to this: used in a ludicrous or contemptuous sense. Compare to talk shop, below.
  • An obsolete preterit of shape.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A building or an apartment in which goods, wares, drugs, etc., are sold by retail.
  • noun A building in which mechanics or artisans work
  • noun A person's occupation, business, profession, or the like, as a subject of attention, interest, conversation, etc.; -- sometimes in deprecation or disapproval. Also used attributively, as in shop talk.
  • noun (Slang) A place where any industry is carried on;
  • noun Slang, Chiefly Eng. Any place of resort, as one's house, a restaurant, etc.
  • noun colloq. the group of workers and the activities controlled by an administrator.
  • noun to indicate too distinctively one's occupation or profession.
  • noun [Colloq.] to make one's business the topic of social conversation; also, to use the phrases peculiar to one's employment.
  • imp. of shape. Shaped.
  • intransitive verb To visit shops for the purpose of purchasing goods.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An establishment that sells goods or services to the public; originally a physical location, but now a virtual establishment as well.
  • noun A place where things are crafted; a workshop or hobbyshop.
  • noun An automobile mechanic's workplace.
  • noun Workplace; office. Used mainly in expressions such as shop talk, closed shop and shop floor.
  • noun A variety of classes taught in junior or senior high school that teach vocational skill.
  • noun business, computing an organisation using specified programming languages or software, often exclusively.
  • noun An act of shopping, especially routine shopping for food and other domestic supplies.
  • verb intransitive To visit shops; to look around shops with the intention of buying something.
  • verb transitive, slang, chiefly UK To report the criminal activities or whereabouts of someone to an authority; to "grass up".
  • verb transitive, Internet slang Shorthand for photoshop; to digitally edit a picture or photograph.
  • interjection Used to attract the services of a shop assistant

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give away information about somebody
  • verb do one's shopping at; do business with; be a customer or client of
  • noun a mercantile establishment for the retail sale of goods or services

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English shoppe, from Old English sceoppa, treasure house.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English shoppe, from Old English sceoppa ("booth")

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Examples

  • 'And when I say a shop,' Hugo pursued, 'I mean a _shop_.'

    Hugo A Fantasia on Modern Themes Arnold Bennett 1899

  • Thank goodness it occurred to me at once to say that I went into the tobacco shop to buy stamps and I must have left it in the _shop_.

    A Young Girl's Diary Anonymous 1897

  • In regard to the daily, or even the occasional use of the stronger drugs of the apothecary's shop -- whether this _shop_ is found in the family or elsewhere -- I would fain hope many of our young women may claim an entire immunity.

    The Young Woman's Guide William A. Alcott 1824

  • I think he must have tried calling it… cos after I ran in my boots across from the shoe shop past the bedding shop… he was behind me saying it doesn’t work ...

    speak-out Diary Entry speak-out 2004

  • The main shop is across from a convenience store that carries Victoria beer and almost always has ice and next door to the tiendita is a place where they husk coconuts, you can tell by the huge pile of husks outside, no line-up of taxis.

    Where to find local style woven bed covers 2008

  • The main shop is across from a convenience store that carries Victoria beer and almost always has ice and next door to the tiendita is a place where they husk coconuts, you can tell by the huge pile of husks outside, no line-up of taxis.

    Where to find local style woven bed covers 2008

  • The main shop is across from a convenience store that carries Victoria beer and almost always has ice and next door to the tiendita is a place where they husk coconuts, you can tell by the huge pile of husks outside, no line-up of taxis.

    Where to find local style woven bed covers 2008

  • The main shop is across from a convenience store that carries Victoria beer and almost always has ice and next door to the tiendita is a place where they husk coconuts, you can tell by the huge pile of husks outside, no line-up of taxis.

    Where to find local style woven bed covers 2008

  • The main shop is across from a convenience store that carries Victoria beer and almost always has ice and next door to the tiendita is a place where they husk coconuts, you can tell by the huge pile of husks outside, no line-up of taxis.

    Where to find local style woven bed covers 2008

  • The main shop is across from a convenience store that carries Victoria beer and almost always has ice and next door to the tiendita is a place where they husk coconuts, you can tell by the huge pile of husks outside, no line-up of taxis.

    Where to find local style woven bed covers 2008

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