store

Etymology

From Middle English store, stoure, storre, from Anglo-Norman stor, estore, estorr, estoer, and Old French estour, estor, from Latin īnstaurō.

noun

1. A place where items may be accumulated or routinely kept.
   This building used to be a store for old tires.
2. A supply held in storage.
   What surprised us all was how Will's lighthearted nature and constant store of good humor won over one of the great heiresses of King Henry's court, Anne Bourchier. 2006, Carolly Erickson, The Last Wife of Henry VIII
3. (mainly North American) A place where items may be purchased; a shop.
   I need to get some milk from the grocery store.
   There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].” 1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock
   In 1866 Colonel J. F. Meline noted that the rebozo had almost disappeared in Santa Fe and that hoop skirts, on sale in the stores, were being widely used. 1948, Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States, J. B. Lippincott Company, page 75
4. (computing, dated) Memory.
   The main store of 1000 36-bit words seemed large at the time.
5. A great quantity or number; abundance.
6. A head of store cattle (feeder cattle to be sold to others for finishing); a store cattle beast.

verb

1. (transitive) To keep (something) while not in use, generally in a place meant for that purpose.
   I'll store these books in the attic.
   The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess
2. Contain.
   The cabinets store all the food the mice would like.
3. Have the capacity and capability to contain.
   They sell boxes that store 24 mason jars.
4. (transitive, computing) To write (something) into memory or registers.
   This operation stores the result on the stack.
5. (transitive) To stock, to fill (a container, repository, etc.) with things.
   I have eaten my fill, and had my pockets well stored. 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 8, page 244