off-license

or off-li·cence

[ awf-lahy-suhns, of- ]

noun

1. a license permitting the sale of sealed bottles of alcoholic beverages to be taken away from the premises by the purchaser.
2. a store having such a license.

adjective

1. having such a license.

Word History and Origins

Origin of off-license¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Unfolding over the course of the hottest days of a torrid Upper Manhattan summer, the story of “In the Heights” isn’t particularly new: It involves the complicated love affairs of two couples: Usnavi and Vanessa, a would-be fashion designer played with focused self-assurance by Melissa Barrera; and Benny and Nina, an off-license taxi dispatcher and a returning Stanford student, played by Corey Hawkins and Leslie Grace.

From Washington Post

Mr Kareem, 20, had been riding an e-scooter along Askew Road from an off-license when it is thought a white Range Rover drove past him and shots were fired from it.

From BBC

War propaganda and Socialist posters are plastered on walls along the cobbled Rue Androuet, in the Montmartre district, now lined by a mock jeweler’s store, tailor and off-license all in war-time decor.

From Reuters

Take a recent trip to my local off-license—what Brits call a shop that sells booze.

From Slate

He’s had too much happiness in his life since, too much experience; he’s lost that fine-tuning that could hold on to the smell of the ham in the off-license, the wetness of the swimming costume, the girl’s cold skin and her naïveté, her extraordinary offer of herself without reserve, the curtains sweeping the floor in the morning light.

From The New Yorker