Word.ws English Dictionary

shopping

Syllables: shop·ping/ˈʃɒpɪŋ//ˈʃɑpɪŋ/

shopping is the present participle and gerund of shop.

Noun

shopping (usually uncountable, plural shoppings)

  1. (usually) The process of buying goods or services, or searching for those suitable to buy.
    • On Saturdays we usually do the shopping.
    • After a hard day's shopping, they had come home laden with bargains, and the dressing-room was strewed with Indian fans, ivory boxes, and lace.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Different Opinions”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 280
  2. (usually) Recently bought goods.
    • I carried three heavy bags of shopping up the stairs.
  3. (usually) An area's combination of stores and other infrastructure and products available for people who want to shop.
    • Boston has good shopping.
  4. (usually) Placement in a workshop for overhaul.
    • The five roller-bearing A1s are now averaging 120,000 miles between shopping; this figure is an improvement of about 50 per cent on the norm of other ex-L.N.E. Pacific types.1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The roller-bearing A1s”, in Trains Illustrated, page 643

Meaning of shop

Verb

shop (third-person singular simple present shops, present participle shopping, simple past and past participle shopped)

  1. (intransitive) To visit stores or shops to browse or explore merchandise, especially with the intention of buying such merchandise.
    • Why don’t you come shopping for gifts with me, early before the Christmas rush?
  2. (transitive) To browse or purchase products from (a catalog, an internet website, etc.), mostly from home.
    • Shop our new arrivals.
  3. (UK, slang, transitive) To report the criminal activities or whereabouts of someone to an authority.
    • He shopped his mates in to the police.
    Synonyms:
    grass up
  4. (UK, slang, transitive) To imprison.
  5. (Internet, transitive) To photoshop; to digitally edit a picture or photograph.
  6. (archaic, slang, transitive) To dismiss from employment.
    Synonyms:
    fire, sack

See all 20 meanings of shop

Forms of shopping

pluralshoppings

Origin of shopping

By surface analysis, shop + -ing.

Words formed from shopping

Phrases with shopping

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with shopping

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shopping

What does shopping mean?
Shopping means the process of buying goods or services, or searching for those suitable to buy.
What is shopping the present participle and gerund of?
Shopping is the present participle and gerund of shop.
What part of speech is shopping?
Shopping is a noun.
How do you pronounce shopping?
Shopping is pronounced /ˈʃɒpɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of shopping?
The plural of shopping is shoppings.

Words near shopping in the dictionary

  1. shoppies
  2. shoppiest
  3. shoppily
  4. shoppin'
  5. shoppiness
  6. shopping
  7. shopping agent
  8. shopping agents
  9. shopping around
  10. shopping bag
  11. shopping bags

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shopping (page history and authors); shop (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shopping.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-shopping.wav.

Cite this entry: “shopping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shopping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.