Word
shop
US/ˈʃɑp/
UK/ʃˈɒp/
Definitions
01a place to buy things
n. a building or website where you can buy goods or services.
n. a physical or digital establishment where goods or services are offered for sale to the public.
“I need to go to the grocery shop to buy some milk and bread.”
“The small independent book shop struggled to compete with the aggressive pricing of major online retailers.”
02a workshop
n. a place where people make or fix things, like a garage for cars.
n. a room or building where manufacturing, repairs, or manual crafts are carried out.
“He spent the whole afternoon in his wood shop building a new table.”
“The mechanic spent hours in the body shop repairing the dented wing of the vintage sports car.”
03the act of shopping
n. the activity of going to buy things, especially food for the week.
n. the act or instance of purchasing goods, particularly routine domestic supplies.
“I usually do the weekly shop on Saturday mornings when it is quiet.”
“After completing the heavy grocery shop, she realised she had forgotten to buy the most essential ingredient for the dinner party.”
British English
Synonyms
04work talk
n. talking about work when you are not at work.
n. discussion regarding professional or business affairs, especially when conducted outside of working hours.
“We promised not to talk shop during our holiday dinner.”
“Even at the wedding reception, the two lawyers couldn't help but talk shop, much to the annoyance of their partners.”
Informal
Usage
Usually appears in the phrase 'talk shop'.
Synonyms
05to buy things
v. to visit stores or websites to look at and buy things.
v. to visit commercial establishments with the intent of browsing or purchasing merchandise.
“We like to shop for clothes at the mall on the weekend.”
“Many consumers now prefer to shop online for electronics to easily compare specifications and user reviews across different brands.”
06to report someone
v. to tell the police or authorities that someone has done something wrong.
v. to inform an authority about someone's criminal activities or whereabouts.
“He was angry because he thought his friend had shopped him to the police.”
“The thief was eventually caught after an anonymous tipster shopped him to the local authorities for a reward.”
British English · Slang
Etymology
From Middle English shoppe, schoppe, from Old English sċoppa (“shed; booth; stall; shop”), from Proto-Germanic skupp-, skup- (“barn, shed”), from Proto-Indo-European skub-, skup- (“to bend, bow, curve, vault”). Cognate with Dutch schop (“spade, kick”), German Schuppen (“shed”), German Schober (“barn”), French échoppe (“booth, shop”) (< Germanic). The verb is denominal. The noun senses “act of shopping”, “purchased items” are backformed from the verb.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Idioms
big shop — A large, regular purchase of groceries; as opposed to ad hoc or impulse purchases.
bull in a china shop — A person who is clumsy, aggressive, without care, concern or self-control.
hit the shops — To become available for purchase at retail locations.
set up shop — To establish a business.
smell of the shop — To indicate too distinctively one's occupation or profession.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/shop