shop

 
Pronunciation: /ʃɒp/

noun

  • 1a building or part of a building where goods or services are sold: a video shop a barber’s shop
  • [in singular] informal an act of going shopping: she slogged her way round 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
  • (the shop) informal the place where one works: she pointed to the classroom ceiling—‘I live here, over the shop.’

verb (shops, shopping, shopped)

  • 1 [no object] go to a shop or shops to buy goods: she shopped for groceries twice a week
  • (shop around) look for the best available price or rate for something: they shopped around for cheaper food
  • North Americanshort for window shopping
  • 2 [with object] British informal inform on (someone): she shopped her husband to bosses for taking tools home

Phrases

all over the shop

see all

set up shop

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

shut up shop

cease trading.
informal cease doing something: flowers that come in one great burst, then shut up shop for the rest of the year

talk shop

discuss matters concerning one’s work, especially at a social occasion when this is inappropriate: he and his fellow workers would incessantly talk shop in the village pub

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)