cottage industry
noun
1
: an industry whose labor force consists of family units or individuals working at home with their own equipment
2
: a small and often informally organized industry
3
: a limited but enthusiastically pursued activity or subject
this debate about sex and law became a cottage industry for feminist academics—
Wendy Kaminer
Wendy KaminerExamples of cottage industry in a Sentence
weaving, pottery, and other cottage industries
Recent Examples on the Web
Amid the cottage industry of fretting over fickle moderates and outré conservatives of color (Cubans in Miami, Byron Donalds and Clarence Thomas, et al.), Asian Americans can fall by the wayside.
—Yiyun Li, Harper's Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024
The Swift vote has created a whole cottage industry in journalism.
—Shelby Grad, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2024
The big picture: Today, the 78-year-old Trump routinely feasts on a stream of misinformation on Truth Social and X, where a cottage industry of MAGA influencers has flourished since Elon Musk acquired and renamed Twitter.
—Zachary Basu, Axios, 12 Sep. 2024
In addition to the sharp rise in telehealth providers offering compounded products, there’s also a wild cottage industry of outright Ozempic counterfeits, as Vanity Fair detailed last month.
—Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 12 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for cottage industry 
Yiyun Li, Harper's Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024
The Swift vote has created a whole cottage industry in journalism.
—Shelby Grad, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2024
The big picture: Today, the 78-year-old Trump routinely feasts on a stream of misinformation on Truth Social and X, where a cottage industry of MAGA influencers has flourished since Elon Musk acquired and renamed Twitter.
—Zachary Basu, Axios, 12 Sep. 2024
In addition to the sharp rise in telehealth providers offering compounded products, there’s also a wild cottage industry of outright Ozempic counterfeits, as Vanity Fair detailed last month.
—Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 12 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for cottage industry
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cottage industry.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near cottage industry
Cite this Entry
“Cottage industry.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cottage%20industry. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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