storekeeper
(ˈstɔəkiːpə(r))
1. One who has charge of a store or stores; one who superintends the receipt and issue of stores; spec. an officer or official in charge of naval or military stores.
| 1618 in J. Charnock Hist. Mar. Archit. (1801) II. 238 Under storekeepers, Chatham. 1663 Pepys Diary 5 Mar., Troubling me and other friends for getting him a place (that is, storekeeper of the Navy at Tangier). 1704 Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. iii. (ed. 21) 532 Yeoman-Sadler and Store-keeper. Ibid. 575 Officers of Her Majesty's Yards. At Chatham... Store-keeper. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 113 ¶8 That the best storekeeper was the mistress's eye. 1798 T. Hinderwell Hist. Scarborough 81 Besides whom, the military establishment consists of R. V. Drury, Esq. Store⁓keeper; a Barrack-Master, [etc.]. 1809 Lond. Chron. 1 July 2/3 Mr. John Trotter, jun. the Storekeeper-General, and some of the other heads of departments, have gone to Portsmouth. 1838 Lytton Alice iv. v, The post of Storekeeper to the Ordnance. 1876 N. Amer. Rev. CXXIII. 300 A dishonest store-keeper at a distillery. 1890 Rlwys. Amer. 307 Everything in the nature of material..passes through the Store-keeper's books. |
2. N. Amer., Austral., etc. A shopkeeper.
| 1741 P. Tailfer etc. Narr. Georgia 107 Augusta..is principally if not altogether, inhabited by Indian Traders and Store-keepers. 1775 A. Burnaby Trav. 38 The chief of the inhabitants are storekeepers or public officers. 1817 M. Birkbeck Notes Journ. Amer. (1818) 97 The store-keepers (country shopkeepers we should call them) of these western towns. 1857 D. P[useley] Rise Australia etc. 421 Geelong..Richardson, S., storekeeper. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Store-keeper,..the name for a retail dealer or shop-keeper in the Colonies, who keeps a miscellaneous assortment of all kinds of commodities. 1887 F. Francis Jun. Saddle & Mocassin 61 To and fro flitted a few busy store-clothed store-keepers and clerks. |
b. U.S. slang. An article that remains so long on hand as to be unsaleable.
| 1891 Century Dict. |