Starbucks

Named after Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. Melville named the character in honor of the Starbuck family, a prominent whaling family based in Nantucket, Massachusetts. The surname itself derives from the community of Starbeck in North Yorkshire, England.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑːˌbʌks/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈstɑːɹˌbʌks/

Starbucks (plural Starbuckses)

1. A widespread chain of coffee shops.
   • 2008, Andrew M. Jones, The Innovation Acid Test: Growth Through Design and Differentiation, →ISBN:

     Consider the Starbucks effect in the slogans written up recently in Fast Company magazine, where companies from various sectors now aspire to be the 'Starbucks of their respective industry': ...

   • 2013, Taylor Clark, Starbucked, →ISBN:

     Companies now want to turn themselves into “the Starbucks of the ham business” or “the Starbucks of fuel-injector makers.”

   • 2014, George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society, →ISBN:

     Said the CEO of the nearly 500-plus store Caribou Coffee chain, “I got into the business because of what they [Starbucks] created.” In China, a small chain, Real Brewed Tea, aims to be “the Starbucks of tea.”

• Starbucksification

Starbucks (plural Starbuckses)

1. (metonymically) A coffee from Starbucks.
   • 2009, Cheyenne McCray, Demons Not Included: A Night Tracker Novel, page 163:

     I swear, if I had been drinking my Starbucks today it would have gone up my nose.

• Tim Hortons, often claimed the Canadian equivalent of the chain

• subtracks