Listen:
Inflections of 'shop v ⇒ conjugate )shops v 3rd person singular shopping v pres p shopped v past shopped v past p
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026 shop /ʃɑp/USA pronunciation
n., v., shopped, shop•ping. n.
[ countable ] a small store or department in a large store selling a special type of goods:[ countable ] Building a place for doing skilled artistic or manual work;[ countable ] any factory, office, or business:[ countable ] Education
Education [ uncountable ] took shop in high school. v.
to visit shops for buying or examining goods:[ no object] to purchase without visiting stores:[ no object] to search;[ ~ + for + object] Idioms
Idioms set up shop , to open as a business:set up shop in a small building but soon expanded. Idioms talk shop , to talk about a shared trade, profession, or business:At the party the two dentists talked shop instead of mingling with the other guests.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026 shop
(shop),USA pronunciation n., v., shopped, shop•ping, interj. n.
a retail store, esp. a small one. a small store or department in a large store selling a specific or select type of goods:the ski shop at Smith's. Building the workshop of a craftsperson or artisan.Building the workshop of a person who works in a manual trade;a carpenter's shop. any factory, office, or business:Our ad agency is a well-run shop. Education
Education a course of instruction in a trade, as carpentry, printing, etc., consisting chiefly of training in the use of its tools and materials.a classroom in which such a course is given. one's trade, profession, or business as a subject of conversation or preoccupation. set up shop , to go into business;to set up shop as a taxidermist. shut up shop :
to close a business temporarily, as at the end of the day. to suspend business operations permanently:They couldn't make a go of it and had to shut up shop. talk shop , to discuss one's trade, profession, or business:After dinner we all sat around the table and talked shop. v.i.
to visit shops and stores for purchasing or examining goods. to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale:Retail merchants often stock their stores by shopping in New York. to seek a bargain, investment, service, etc. (usually fol. by for ):I'm shopping for a safe investment that pays good interest. v.t.
to seek or examine goods, property, etc., offered for sale in or by:She's shopping the shoe stores this afternoon. British Terms [ Chiefly Brit. Informal.] to put into prison; to behave treacherously toward; Slang Terms to try to sell (merchandise or a project) in an attempt to obtain an order or contract.interj.
(used in a store, shop, etc., in calling an employee to wait on a customer.) 1250–1300; Middle English shoppe (noun, nominal), Old English sceoppa booth; akin to scypen stall, shippon, German Schopf lean-to, Schuppen shed
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
shop /ʃɒp / n a place, esp a small building, for the retail sale of goods and services an act or instance of shopping, esp household shopping a place for the performance of a specified type of work; workshop all over the shop ⇒ informal in disarray : his papers were all over the shop in every direction : I've searched for it all over the shop shut up shop ⇒ to close business at the end of the day or permanently to become defensive or inactive talk shop ⇒ to speak about one's work, esp when meeting socially, sometimes with the effect of excluding those not similarly employed vb (shops , shopping , shopped (intransitive ) often followed by for : to visit a shop or shops in search of goods with the intention of buying them (transitive ) slang chiefly Brit to inform on or betray, esp to the police Etymology: Old English sceoppa stall, booth; related to Old High German scopf shed, Middle Dutch schoppe stall
'shop ' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):