Meanings
plural coffeehouses · alternative coffee house · alternative coffee-house
- An establishment where coffee is served to clients; a café.
A stranger picked up the tab for the coffee order of the next customer in the drive-through line at a Tim Hortons coffeehouse in Winnipeg, Canada.
2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR, archived from the original on 02 Dec 20252 more examples
[…] Miniſters are ſo wiſe to leave their Proceedings to be accounted for by Reaſoners at a Diſtance, who often mould them into Syſtems, that do not only go down very well in the Coffee-Houſe, but are Supplies for Pamphlets in the preſent Age, and may probably furniſh Materials for Memoirs and Hiſtories in the next.
1714 (date written), [Jonathan Swift], Some Free Thoughts upon the Present State of Affairs. […], Dublin; London: […] T. Cooper, […], published 1741, →OCLC, page 3In the same way that Old Europe’s coffeehouses begat insurance companies, he says, today’s political careers beget an unhealthy relationship with throat lozenges.
2012 May 5, Henry Alford, “Future TED Talks”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 May 2012Synonyms: coffee shop
present singular third person coffeehouses · participle present coffeehousing · participle past coffeehoused · past coffeehoused · alternative coffee house · alternative coffee-house
- To distract a game player by chattering.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAn establishment where coffee is served to clients; a café.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna small restaurant where drinks and snacks are sold
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Arabicقَهْوَة (qahwa)
- Ottoman Turkishقهوه (kahve)
- Italiancaffè
- Dutchkoffie
- Englishcoffee
- Proto-Indo-European*(s)kewH-der.?
- Proto-Germanic*hūsą
- Proto-West Germanic*hūs
- Old Englishhūs
- Middle Englishhous
- Englishhouse
- Englishcoffeehouse
Cite this entry
coffeehouse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coffeehouse
“coffeehouse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coffeehouse. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “coffeehouse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coffeehouse.
Source: coffeehouse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.