Meanings
plural corner shops
- UKA small retail store, often in a residential area, that carries a limited selection of everyday items and is open long hours for the convenience of shoppers.
After six such encounters in tiny corner shops which normally complained that they were out of sugar, that the cornflakes were late in again and that they couldn't get tomato sauce for love nor money, the Captain, his head reeling, had staggered into the High Street off-licence.
1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope, page 123Synonyms: minimart, newsagent, convenience store, c-store, 7-Eleven, corner store, convenience store, variety store
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA small retail store, often in a residential area, that carries a limited selection of everyday items and is open long hours for the convenience of shoppers.
Origin
Such shops were traditionally built on street corners at the end of rows of terraced houses.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
corner shop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/corner%20shop
“corner shop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/corner%20shop. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “corner shop,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/corner%20shop.
Source: corner shop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.