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Glite Dictionary
package store

package store

1 5.3
A shop that sells bottles of beer, wine or spirits to take home
  • noun
  • /ˈpækɪdʒ stɔr/
  • US
translation icon : tienda de licores
  • There's a package store on Castle Road.
  • go to the package store
  • wines from package stores

Examples

  • Current Oklahoma law forbids the sale of any beer, wine, or liquor with more than 3.2 percent alcohol in any retailer other than package stores.

    Blog text (5)

  • Back in the Mercedes, Feaver had asked if she needed a drink, which God knows she did, and he volunteered to go into a package store to get her a bottle.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I gotta go down to the package store to pick up some smokes.

    Sweet Thing (2020)

  • I moved here two weeks ago, I still can't find a decent package store.

    The Front Runner (2018)

  • In the other pocket was a half-pint of Old Crow that he had bought at the package store that afternoon.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Rocco exits a package store just down the street.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • He hit Print and went down to the package store, which, oddly, was locked.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • I followed the feeder of the MacArthur Freeway toward a nearby package store, hummed to myself, and pretended to be cheerful.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • I'm going to the package store to buy some beer for the weekend.

  • The new package store in town has a wide selection of wines.

Synonyms

liquor store
vspackage store
  • US
84 1.0

A shop that sells alcohol to take home

emphasizes that items are in sealed containers for off-site use
off-licence
vspackage store
  • UK
6.4

A shop that sells alcoholic drinks to take away

focuses on sale of drinks in sealed containers rather than legal permission

How Large

package store
  • US
1 5.3

Surface Forms

package store singular
package stores plural
off-licences plural
off-licence singular

Morphology

package + store

The parts 'package' (a parcel or packaged item) and 'store' (a shop) give a clear literal image of a shop selling packaged goods, so some general sense can be inferred. However, the conventional, regionally U.S. meaning 'liquor store selling sealed alcoholic beverages for off‑premises consumption' is a specialized, conventionalized sense that is not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so it requires cultural/lexical knowledge.

Etymology

Package store comes from the simple idea that alcohol was sold in sealed packages at a store so people could take it home. One popular story says shops used this name to show they sold bottles for 'take away' rather than for drinking on the spot, so today package store means a shop that sells bottled alcohol to be taken away.