sell
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-. Compare Danish sælge, Swedish sälja, Icelandic selja.
Verb edit
sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle selling, simple past and past participle sold)
- (transitive, ditransitive, intransitive) To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.
- Synonyms: peddle, vend
- She sold her old car very quickly.
- I'll sell you three books for a hundred dollars.
- Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 19:21:
- If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.
- 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
- (ergative) To be sold.
- This old stock will never sell.
- The corn sold for a good price.
- (transitive) To promote a product or service.
- 2016, “The Fetal Kick Catalyst”, in The Big Bang Theory:
- Howard: You're gonna feel terrible when I'm in a wheelchair. Which, by the way, would fit easily in the back of this award-winning minivan.
Bernadette: Fine, we'll go to the E.R. Just stop selling me on the van.
Howard: You're right. It sells itself.
- (transitive) To promote a particular viewpoint.
- My boss is very old-fashioned and I'm having a lot of trouble selling the idea of working at home occasionally.
- (transitive) To betray for money or other things.
- (transitive, slang) To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.
- 1605 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Volpone, or The Foxe. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC:
- Then weaues
Other crosse-plots
New tricks for safety, are sought;
They thriue: When, bold,
Each tempt's th'other againe, and all are sold.
- 1884, Mark Twain, chapter XXIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
- House was jammed again that night, and we sold this crowd the same way.
- 2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Blackpool 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC:
- Raul Meireles was the victim of the home side's hustling on this occasion giving the ball away to the impressive David Vaughan who slipped in Taylor-Fletcher. The striker sold Daniel Agger with the best dummy of the night before placing his shot past keeper Pepe Reina.
- (transitive, professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
Antonyms edit
Derived terms edit
- buy low, sell high
- buy when it snows(,/ and) sell when it goes
- cold sell
- cost of goods sold
- cross-sell
- don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear
- hand-sell
- hard-sell
- I have a bridge to sell you
- long sell
- mis-sell
- no-sell
- panic sell
- price to sell
- proverbs should be sold in pairs
- resell
- sell against the box
- sell away
- sell bargains
- sell-by date
- sell by the candle
- sell dearly
- sell down, sell down the river
- sell freezers to Eskimos
- sell ice to Eskimos
- sell in May, …and go away, …and stay away, …then go away
- sell like hot cakes / sell like hotcakes
- sell off, sell-off
- sell on
- sell one's ass
- sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage
- sell one's body
- sell oneself, sell oneself short
- sell one's life dearly
- sell one's own grandmother
- sell one's soul
- sell one's soul to the devil
- sell one's soul to the Devil
- sell order
- sell out, sell-out
- sell past the close
- sell refrigerators to eskimos
- sell salt to a slug
- sell short
- sell side
- sell snow to Eskimos
- sell someone a bill of goods
- sell someone a pup
- sell-sword
- sell the dummy
- sell the pass
- sell-through
- sell up
- sell wolf tickets / …woof tickets
- short sell, short-sell
- sold again and got the money
- upsell
- what wins on Sunday sells on Monday
Descendants edit
Translations edit
to agree to transfer goods or provide services for payment
|
to be sold
|
to promote a particular viewpoint
to trick, cheat, or manipulate someone
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Noun edit
sell (plural sells)
- An act of selling; sale.
- 1963, American Society of Travel Agents, ASTA Travel News, volume 32, page 55:
- Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier.
- (figurative, by extension) The promotion of an idea for acceptance.
- This is going to be a tough sell.
- An easy task.
- (colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.
- 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 12”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
- "Of course a miracle may happen, and you may be a great painter, but you must confess the chances are a million to one against it. It'll be an awful sell if at the end you have to acknowledge you've made a hash of it."
- 1922, Katherine Mansfield, The Doll's House (Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, 354)
- What a sell for Lena!
Derived terms edit
See also edit
Etymology 2 edit
From French selle, from Latin sella.
Alternative forms edit
Noun edit
sell (plural sells)
- (obsolete) A seat or stool.
- 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Fourth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 56:
- The tyrant proud frown’d from his loftie cell, [...].
- (archaic) A saddle.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- turning to that place, in which whyleare / He left his loftie steed with golden sell, / And goodly gorgeous barbes, him found not theare [...].
Etymology 3 edit
From Old Saxon seill or Old Norse seil. Cognate with Dutch zeel (“rope”), German Seil (“rope”).
Noun edit
sell (plural sells)
- (regional, obsolete) A rope (usually for tying up cattle, but can also mean any sort of rope).
- He picked up the sell from the straw-strewn barn-floor, snelly sneaked up behind her and sleekly slung it around her swire while scryingː "dee, dee ye fooking quhoreǃ".
Derived terms edit
References edit
Anagrams edit
Breton edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sell m
Chinese edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
sell
See also edit
References edit
Pennsylvania German edit
Pronoun edit
sell
Determiner edit
sell
Declension edit
Declension of seller | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | plural | |
nominative | seller | selle, selli | sell | selle, selli |
dative | sellem, sem | sellere, sellre, seller | sellem, sem | selle |
accusative | seller | selle, selli | sell | selle, selli |
Scots edit
Etymology edit
From Old English sellan.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle sellin, simple past sellt or sauld, past participle sellt or sauld)
- To sell.