open shop

noun

A place of employment in which employment is in no way contingent on membership in a union, though a union may be the exclusive bargaining agent of the employees.

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Meanings

nounopen shop (plural open shops)

plural open shops

  1. A place of employment in which employment is in no way contingent on membership in a union, though a union may be the exclusive bargaining agent of the employees.
verbopen shop (third-person singular simple present opens shop, present participle opening shop, simple past and past participle opened shop)

present singular third person opens shop · participle present opening shop · participle past opened shop · past opened shop

  1. IndiaUSTo begin work or operations.

    Rosenman left Sandollar to run Brillstein-Grey’s movie division for two years. He then opened shop as an indie producer, developing such films as the Beacon Communications comedy “Family Man,”.

    1999 March 25, Michael Fleming, “Rosenman and Baum reteam”, in Variety
Cite this entry
APA

open shop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20shop

MLA

“open shop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20shop. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “open shop,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20shop.

Source: open shop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.