dry goods

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical and chiefly US: textiles, clothing, and related merchandise sold by a shop

   The general store kept bolts of cloth and other dry goods behind the counter.

A compound of dry + goods. In nineteenth-century American retailing, dry goods distinguished textiles, clothing, and similar merchandise from groceries, liquids, hardware, and other classes of wares. Regional uses have varied.

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