Word.ws English Dictionary

shopkeeper's privilege

shopkeeper's privilege noun: a law in the United States, according to which a shopkeeper can detain a suspected shoplifter on store property for a reasonable amount of time, as long as the shopkeeper has cause to believe that the detainee actually committed, or attempted to commit, theft of store property.

Noun

shopkeeper's privilege (uncountable)

  1. A law in the United States, according to which a shopkeeper can detain a suspected shoplifter on store property for a reasonable amount of time, as long as the shopkeeper has cause to believe that the detainee actually committed, or attempted to commit, theft of store property.

Questions about shopkeeper's privilege

What does shopkeeper's privilege mean?
Shopkeeper's privilege means a law in the United States, according to which a shopkeeper can detain a suspected shoplifter on store property for a reasonable amount of time, as long as the shopkeeper has cause to believe that the detainee actually committed, or attempted to commit, theft of store property.
What part of speech is shopkeeper's privilege?
Shopkeeper's privilege is a noun.

Words near shopkeeper's privilege in the dictionary

  1. shophouses
  2. shophroth
  3. shophtim
  4. shopkeep
  5. shopkeeper
  6. shopkeeper's privilege
  7. shopkeeperess
  8. shopkeeperesses
  9. shopkeeperish
  10. shopkeeperism
  11. shopkeeperly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shopkeeper's privilege (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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