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shop

Syllabification: (shop)
Pronunciation: /SHäp/

Translate shop | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of shop

noun

  • 1a building or part of a building where goods or services are sold; a store:a card shop a barber shop
  • [in singular] informal an act of going shopping:she slogged her way around the supermarket doing the weekly shop
  • 2 [usually with modifier] a place where things are manufactured or repaired; a workshop:an auto repair shop
  • a room or department in a factory where a particular stage of production is carried out:the machine shop
  • short for shop class.I got an A in shop last year

verb (shops, shopping, shopped)

  • 1 [no object] visit one or more stores or websites to buy goods:she shopped for groceries twice a week sometimes it’s more convenient to shop online [with object]:take a trip to downtown San Diego to shop the upscale stores of Horton Plaza
  • (shop around) look for the best available price or rate for something:they shopped around for cheaper food
  • 2 [with object] informal, chiefly British inform on (someone):a concerned member of the public had shopped him—wrongly—for accepting monetary reward

Phrases

close (or shut) up shop

cease business or operation, either temporarily or permanently:the cafes must shut up shop by July 22
informal stop some activity:rather than close up shop, the team has returned to fighting trim

set up shop

establish oneself in a business:he set up shop as a hairdresser in Soho

talk shop

discuss matters concerning one’s work, especially at a social occasion when this is inappropriate.

Origin:

Middle English: shortening of Old French eschoppe 'lean-to booth', of West Germanic origin; related to German Schopf 'porch' and English dialect shippon 'cattle shed.' The verb is first recorded (mid 16th century) in the sense 'imprison' (from an obsolete slang use of the noun for 'prison'), hence shop (sense 2 of the verb)

shop in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of shop in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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