cottage industry

1. A small-scale industry carried out by people in their own homes. When my grandmother was a girl, she was part of a cottage industry that made textiles, along with the rest of her family. I'm worried that what he thinks is a benign cottage industry is really a pyramid scheme. Our bakery started out as a cottage industry in both of our homes until we outgrew those spaces and needed access to an industrial kitchen.

2. A small (and often loosely organized) network or business. It looks like you guys have a nice little cottage industry raking leaves. Back in my day, the neighborhood kids had a cottage industry shoveling snow in the winter. Now, no one's interested in leaving their warm homes, even for a few bucks. My friends and I really like making bracelets, and we've kind of struck up a cottage industry selling them to our classmates at recess.

3. An area of study pursued by a few passionate people. I understand that not everyone is interested in tracing minute details in modernist texts, but it's a cottage industry for a few people in the Master's program, like myself! Beekeeping must be a cottage industry for people intrigued by entomology, and, specifically, the behavior of bees. I'm sure Ulysses is a cottage industry for people who enjoying reading a really confusing text and several explanatory texts simultaneously, but that is not me!

shotgun cottage

slang A one-story house in which each room is in a straight alignment with the others, connected by a continuous hallway running from the front to the back of the residence. Chiefly used in the Southern United States. When our whole family goes to stay in my grandmother's shotgun cottage in New Orleans, it always feels like we're all right on top of one another.