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pawnshop

pawnshop

28 3.0
A shop where people leave valuable things to get a loan or sell them for cash
  • noun
  • /ˈpɔnˌʃɑp/
  • US
translation icon : casa de empeños
  • Many people use a pawnshop as a quick way to get a loan by leaving valuable items as collateral.

Examples

  • Directly across was a pawnshop, just as he remembered.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • I bought it in a pawnshop.

  • We found it at the pawnshop in town.

  • You must have seen it in some other pawnshop, sir.

  • The apartment next to the pawnshop is empty.

  • I bought that at a little pawnshop just two blocks from the boy's house.

  • I lugged them to every pawnshop on Sixth Avenue.

  • There are times when pawnshops auction some of their valuable pieces at a discounted price.

    Blog text (29)
  • One pawnshop was open, but I didn't have anything left to pawn.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • On the other side of the expressway, downtown turned into blocks of strip bars and pawnshops.

    Fiction book (1996)

Synonyms

pawnbroker's shop
vspawnshop
3.9

A shop where people leave things to get a loan that may be sold if not paid back

is the shorter, more common term for the same business
pawnbrokerage
vspawnshop
8.4

A shop that lends money if you leave something you own as a promise to pay

is the everyday retail term rather than the business form word
loan office
vspawnshop
2.7

A shop that gives money when people leave things until they pay it back

also allows selling items for cash not only lending against property
hockshop
vspawnshop
  • Archaic
9.3

A shop that buys used items or lends money and keeps items until you pay back

is primarily a lending and sales business but emphasizes low resale prices

How Formal

bank
1.0
jewelry store
  • US
42 1.1
pawnshop
  • US
28 3.0
hawker
  • UK
4 7.4

Surface Forms

pawnshop singular
pawnshops plural

Morphology

pawnshop = pawn + shop (transparent) = pawn + shop

Direct compound of 'pawn' + 'shop' meaning a shop dealing in pawned items; the meaning follows directly from the components.

Etymology

Pawnshop comes from pawn, an old word for a 'pledge' — something you leave to promise to pay back a loan, and shop, meaning a place to buy or sell things. So a pawnshop is a shop where people leave or sell valuable items to get cash.