store Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a mercantile establishment for the retail sale of goods or services
    shop.
    • he bought it at a shop on Cape Cod
  2. noun a supply of something available for future use
    fund; stock.
    • he brought back a large store of Cuban cigars
  3. noun an electronic memory device
    storage; memory board; computer storage; memory; computer memory.
    • a memory and the CPU form the central part of a computer to which peripherals are attached
  4. noun a depository for goods
    entrepot; depot; storage; storehouse.
    • storehouses were built close to the docks
  5. verb keep or lay aside for future use
    salt away; put in; stack away; hive away; stash away; lay in.
    • store grain for the winter
    • The bear stores fat for the period of hibernation when he doesn't eat
  6. verb find a place for and put away for storage
    • where should we stow the vegetables?
    • I couldn't store all the books in the attic so I sold some

WordNet

Store noun
Etymology
OE. stor, stoor, OF. estor, provisions, supplies, fr. estorer to store. See Store, v. t.
Definitions
  1. That which is accumulated, or massed together; a source from which supplies may be drawn; hence, an abundance; a great quantity, or a great number.
    The ships are fraught with store of victuals. Bacon.
    With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and give the prize. Milton.
  2. A place of deposit for goods, esp. for large quantities; a storehouse; a warehouse; a magazine.
  3. Any place where goods are sold, whether by wholesale or retail; a shop. U.S. & British Colonies
  4. pl. Articles, especially of food, accumulated for some specific object; supplies, as of provisions, arms, ammunition, and the like; as, the stores of an army, of a ship, of a family.
    His swine, his horse, his stoor, and his poultry. Chaucer.
    Syn. -- Fund; supply; abundance; plenty; accumulation; provision. -- Store, Shop. The English call the place where goods are sold (however large or splendid it may be) a shop, and confine the word store to its original meaning; viz., a warehouse, or place where goods are stored. In America the word store is applied to all places, except the smallest, where goods are sold. In some British colonies the word store is used as in the United States. also syn. = stock
    In his needy shop a tortoise hung, An alligator stuffed, and other skins Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves A beggarly account of empty boxes. Shak.
    Sulphurous and nitrous foam, . . . Concocted and adjusted, they reduced To blackest grain, and into store conveyed. Milton.
Store adjective
Definitions
  1. Accumulated; hoarded. Bacon.
Store transitive verb
Etymology
OE. storen, OF. estorer to construct, restore, store, LL. staurare, for L. instaurare to renew, restore; in + staurare (in comp.) Cf. Instore, Instaurate, Restore, Story a floor.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Stored ; present participle & verbal noun Storing
Definitions
  1. To collect as a reserved supply; to accumulate; to lay away.
    Dora stored what little she could save. Tennyson.
  2. To furnish; to supply; to replenish; esp., to stock or furnish against a future time.
    Her mind with thousand virtues stored. Prior.
    Wise Plato said the world with men was stored. Denham.
    Having stored a pond of four acres with carps, tench, and other fish. Sir M. Hale.
  3. To deposit in a store, warehouse, or other building, for preservation; to warehouse; as, to store goods.

Webster 1913