dollar store meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

dollar store

nounalso spelled dollar-store

Canada, US A retail store selling inexpensive items, especially one in which all items have a price of one dollar. (The latter type, whose name has the literal meaning, were formerly common and are now rare.)

Near-synonyms: five-and-dime, five-and-ten, dime store; pound shop (UK), $2 shop (AU, NZ), ten-dollar store (Hong Kong English)

Historical A government-owned shop in Cuba that sold goods mainly to foreigners and solely in exchange for hard currency.

Derived terms: dollar-store

dollar-store

noun

Etymology Attributive form of dollar store.

Canada, US Synonym of pound-shop: used to denote that something is low-quality or an inferior copy.

Near-synonym: ten-cent
Once, I thought I saw her, but it was only another girl, with an East German guy, in the same dollar-store dress she’d worn for my camera.1995, Pico Iyer, Cuba and the Night, page 34:

2 more examples

Weave tracks askew, postpregnancy bellies pushing dollar-store seams, they look a hot mess.2005, Ayana D. Byrd, Akiba Solomon, Naked: Black Women Bare All about Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts, page 95:
We may cost a buck from the box but we don’t put out dollar store journalism.2012 October 31, Rose DiManno, “Star introduces digital subscription because it costs big bucks to put out a decent paper”, in Toronto Star: