to talk shop
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
To talk about one's affairs or business; to draw allusions from one's business, as when Ollapod, the apothecary in Colman's Poor Gentleman, talks of a uniform with rhubarb-coloured facings.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to talk shop” mean?
To talk about one's affairs or business; to draw allusions from one's business, as when Ollapod, the apothecary in Colman's Poor Gentleman, talks of a uniform with rhubarb-coloured facings.
Is “to talk shop” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.