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coffee shop

American  

noun

  1. a small, usually inexpensive, restaurant where refreshments and light meals are served.

coffee shop British  

noun

  1. a shop where coffee is sold or drunk

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of coffee shop

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

This happens when you get a punch card at a coffee shop or nail salon, for instance.

From MarketWatch

One of my evergreen gripes with the standard-issue coffee shop blueberry muffin is that it never quite tastes like it believes in blueberries.

From Salon

She left her job in a coffee shop to study for a degree in Midwifery at Coventry University.

From BBC

They wanted to rewrite the playbook and bring that type of comedy out of 75-seat black boxes behind coffee shops.

From Los Angeles Times

In Clarkston, Ga., a city with a large refugee population, immigrants have opened coffee shops, skin-care businesses and Nepalese grocery stores, among other ventures, said Erin Igleheart, director of the startup accelerator program Start:ME.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.