Oxfam

Syllabic abbreviation of Oxford Committee for Famine Relief: originally the telegraphic address of the organisation.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒksfæm/

Oxfam

1. A United Kingdom-based charity focused on alleviating global poverty and operating a chain of charity shops.
   • 1992, Juliet Ash, Elizabeth Wilson, Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader, page 42:

     [E]xquisitely torn jeans adorned the 'Hard Times' cover of The Face, while the long macs and second-hand suits of the 'Oxfam brigade', with their doomy Joy Division rock and George Orwell haircuts, made a suitable fanfare for the advent of the dreaded 1984. In one sense Oxfam chic was a lament for the passing of the old working-class certainties […]

   • 2012, Alana Muir, An American Guide to Britishness, page 34:

     In the town center of the village I live in, there is an Oxfam shop, a Salvation Army shop, a Heart Disease UK shop, and a Cancer Research shop. They sell the usual thrift store stuff of used clothes and books.