shops

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of shop.

   Most of the shops downtown were packed on the first day of the sale.

   Independent shops in the old quarter sell handmade goods to tourists.

   Note

   Only the countable uses of shop take this plural: stores, online or physical, workshops, and the big garages where mechanics work. The figurative sense of business talk is uncountable and has no plural at all. The same spelling also serves as the verb form (she shops at two shops), and a determiner such as the, these or two is what marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of shop.

   My neighbor shops online whenever she is too busy to leave the house.

   He shops carefully, comparing prices before settling on a purchase.

   Note

   Every meaning of the verb passes through this one form, so the sentence has to sort them out. Without an object it means browsing or buying: she shops for shoes. With an object it can mean buying from a catalog or website, or editing a photo. In British slang it can also mean informing on someone, as in he shops his accomplices to the police. That use is an accusation, not an errand.

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