Meaning of cottage industry | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A job or occupation carried out at home or on a part-time basis, historically often manufacturing work such as sewing, lacemaking, or spinning.
2. A small-scale industry, with relatively few employees or a limited customer base or low economic impact.
   broadly

Equivalents

Examples

“Near-synonym: proto-industry”

“A craft such as quilting may be pursued as a hobby or as a cottage industry.”

“Scotland and Ireland are famous for their tweeds and homespuns and what are known as the "cottage industries" have⟳ been recently revived in those countries as the products of their hand looms have⟳ become⟳ deservedly popular abroad.”

“Oak bark is still used to some extent. Shoe-making used to be an important cottage industry, but the introduction of machinery has carried the work⟳ to large factories elsewhere.”

“Customers quickly sensed the change⟳ when CA took over a company: The new owners vigorously enforced license⟳ agreements, often in the courts. A cottage industry soon sprang up to advise⟳ companies on how to negotiate⟳ with CA.”

“So why was there so much breathlessness about a blogger joining this emphatically non-exclusive club? Because the blogging story has become⟳ a cottage industry, a cultural fashion trend that blogger and establishment alike have⟳ a vested interest⟳ in keeping alive.”

“Microfinance, once a relative cottage industry championed by antipoverty activists and development wonks, is on the verge of a revolution, with billions of dollars from big banks, private-equity shops and pension funds pouring in.”

“Remote and difficult to access, many villages in China’s interior have⟳ developed a criminal cottage industry, involving anything from drugs to internet fraud to counterfeiting.”

CEFR level