Grocery
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Retail foodstuffs and other household supplies. attributive
"1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Where ten thousand pounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages of the grocer's labour make but a very trifling addition..."
- 2 (usually plural) consumer goods sold by a grocer wordnet
- 3 A shop or store that sells groceries; a grocery store.
"1854: Henry David Thoreau, Walden I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery, the bar-room, the post-office, and the bank..."
- 4 a marketplace where groceries are sold wordnet
- 1 To go grocery shopping. intransitive
"We shopped and groceried on a cash basis, determined on that from the start."
- 2 To furnish with groceries. transitive
"Fifty-eight years of grocerying hotels, restaurants and institutions that feed many people"
Example
More examples"Please tell us where there is a grocery store."
Etymology
From Middle English grocerye, equivalent to grocer + -y. Compare gross. Doublet of groceria.
Related phrases
More for "grocery"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.