Store

n. [O. Fr. estoire, provisions, equipage, fleet, L. Lat. storia, storium, a certain quantity of a thing, staurum, any necessity. Cf. A-S., Dan., Sw., & Icel. stōr, great, large, vast.]

1Sense 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.

2Sense 2. A place of deposit for large quantities; a store-house; a ware-house; a magazine.

3Sense 3. Hence, any place where goods are sold, whether by wholesale or retail.

4Sense 4. (pl.) Articles, especially of food, accumulated for some specific object; supplies, as of provisions, arms, ammunition, and the like, for an army or a vessel; as, the stores of an army, of a ship, of a family, and the like.

In store, in a state of accumulation; hence, in a state of readiness. “I have better news in store for thee.” Shak. — To set store by, to value greatly. [Colloq.]

Synonyms— 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. Our American application of the word store to all places, except the lowest, where goods are sold, marks a tendency to “scale upward” in the use of terms, which we have in common with the French, among whom boutique has, in like manner, given place to magasin as a place for the sale of goods.

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.