Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A retail seller of fresh fruits and vegetables.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A retailer of vegetables.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A retailer of vegetables or fruits in their fresh or green state.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun chiefly UK A person who sells
fresh vegetables andfruit , normally from a relatively smallshop
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a grocer who sells fresh fruits and vegetables
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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From 'Punch' to Terry the greengrocer is a good step, but, let me tell you, he
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"The greengrocer is now a florist called Darling Buds of Kent".
Patrice Peyret: Fix yourself a great e-trip with Keith Richards, an iPad and Google maps. Patrice Peyret 2010
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"The greengrocer is now a florist called Darling Buds of Kent".
Patrice Peyret: Fix yourself a great e-trip with Keith Richards, an iPad and Google maps. Patrice Peyret 2010
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There are some "desperate willins" (as Sam Weller called the greengrocer at the swarry) who fail to see much more than types in
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 George Saintsbury 1889
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Sam called the greengrocer a 'desp'rate willin,' and ordered
The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1841
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Sam called the greengrocer a 'desp'rate willin,' and ordered a large bowl of punch -- two circumstances which seemed to raise him very much in the opinion of the selections.
The Pickwick papers 1836
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The typical Czech "greengrocer" - Havel's famous description of the symbolic Czech Everyman - did not believe Soviet propaganda, but felt helplessly enmeshed in it.
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It was an oddly snobbish thing to say about an international tycoon, and Banks spat out the word 'greengrocer' as though selling food were a form of mass murder.
Fear and Loathing in Europe Buruma, Ian 1996
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Most any prescriptivist you meet will have at the ready a set of examples of what is known as the greengrocer’s apostrophe: ‘s used to form a plural when just s is called for.
Preposterous Apostrophes II: Pluralization « Motivated Grammar 2007
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Ultimately it is of no consequence whether one writes Asbos or asbo’s or ASBOs so long as the result is comprehensible, and the apostrophe in asbo’s can be justified (see above) whereas the one in the plural potato’s cannot (this is known as the greengrocer’s apostrophe).
Those apostrophes 2006
strev commented on the word greengrocer
then the greengrocer moves their goods to the browngrocer who specializes in rotting fruits and vegetables
August 8, 2009
bilby commented on the word greengrocer
I use the specially-adapted rotting compartment in the bottom of the fridge.
August 8, 2009