Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Grocery
1. 
The commodities sold by grocers, as tea, coffee, spices, etc.; – in the United States almost always in the plural form, in this sense. 
A deal box . . . to carry 
groceries 
in. Goldsmith.
The shops at which the best families of the neighborhood bought 
grocery 
and millinery. Macaulay.
2. 
A retail grocer’s shop or store. 
[U. S.] 
Webster 1828 Edition
Grocery
GRO'CERY
,Noun.
  1.
  The commodities sold by grocers; usually in the plural.Definition 2025
grocery
grocery
English
a grocery
Noun
grocery (plural groceries)
-  (usually groceries) retail foodstuffs and other household supplies.
-  1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
- Where ten thousand pounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages of the grocer's labour make but a very trifling addition...
 
 -  1850, Thomas Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets, The present time
- Did not cotton spin itself, beef grow, and groceries and spiceries come in from the East and the West, quite comfortably by the side of shams?
 
 
 -  1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
 -  A shop or store that sells groceries; a grocery store.
-  1854: Henry David Thoreau, Walden
- I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery, the bar-room, the post-office, and the bank...
 
 
 -  1854: Henry David Thoreau, Walden
 
Usage notes
When referring to goods, the singular form is primarily used attributively, as in a grocery bill, a grocery list, etc. The plural form, groceries, is much more frequently used to refer to actual goods, especially in the US.
Synonyms
- (retail foodstuffs and household supplies): commodities, general goods, groceries, packaged goods
 - (store that sells groceries): general store, grocery store, market, supermarket
 
Related terms
Translations
retail foodstuffs and other household supplies — see groceries
shop or store that sells groceries
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