Definition of cottage industry in US English:
 cottage industry
nounˈˌkädij ˈindəstrēˈˌkɑdɪdʒ ˈɪndəstri
A business or manufacturing activity carried on in a person's home.
 weaving was an important cottage industry
mass noun conditions in cottage industry were hardly rosy
 Example sentencesExamples
-  As a result, whale-watching has become an island cottage industry.
 -  Before the Industrial Revolution England's economy was based on its cottage industry.
 -  Despite stiff competition, there is a big demand for cheap varieties of detergent powder, which can be manufactured as a cottage industry.
 -  This would be a great cottage industry for some of our under-developed neighbouring countries.
 -  You know, if you think about the situation they were in a generation ago, football was really a cottage industry.
 -  The private investment market is like a cottage industry, with a large number of small players.
 -  In spite of this, a cottage industry has developed in recent years around educational programming for very young children.
 -  She makes it clear that she never saw her frozen baby-food company as a cottage industry.
 -  He's learned to combine the high-tech with the unapologetically low-tech in his cottage industry.
 -  It's clear that this is no longer a cottage industry.
 -  The amount of fees that many colleges are demanding will be enough to set up a cottage industry or tiny business enterprise.
 -  Debunking him has become a cottage industry.
 -  Medicine, which was largely a cottage industry until the Second World War, has been transformed by several factors.
 -  The considerable increase in business has created a cottage industry in the professions.
 -  As managing director, he has guided the company from a small cottage industry to a multimillion-euro success.
 -  We need to stop acting like a cottage industry and respect that clients entrust us with significant amounts of money to get them results.
 -  Second, human-rights watchdogs and lawyers are a veritable cottage industry these days.
 -  Born of people's misfortunes, credit counseling was a sleepy cottage industry for a long time.
 -  Masks and wood sculptures have developed into an important cottage industry for the men of one community.
 -  A cottage industry has grown up among professional military historians and history buffs sponsoring these tours.