café, noun
- Forms:
- Also cafe, caffie.
- Origin:
- English, South African EnglishShow more Special sense of general English café ‘a tea-shop or coffee house’, a sense formerly current in South African English, but now usually replaced by coffee-shop.
A shop selling sweets, cigarettes, newspapers, perishables, and basic groceries, and staying open after normal hours; Greek; kafee; tearoom sense 1. Also attributive.
1957 B. O’Keefe Gold without Glitter 79Number Twelve set off on the sixteen mile journey..with as little concern as the city dweller when he strolls down to the corner café to buy a packet of cigarettes.
1991 C. Barrett in Weekend Post 12 Jan. 8As the years marched on, the corner grocer evolved in[to] a café or general dealer.
A shop selling sweets, cigarettes, newspapers, perishables, and basic groceries, and staying open after normal hours; Greek; kafee; tearoom sense 1. Also attributive.
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