Wiktionary

sell

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

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.

VerbEdit

sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle selling, simple past and past participle sold)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, ditransitive) To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.
    I'll sell you three books for a hundred dollars.
    Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.
    Synonyms: peddle, vend
    • 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.
  2. (ergative) To be sold.
    This old stock will never sell.
    The corn sold for a good price.
  3. To promote a product or service.
    • 2016, "The Fetal Kick Catalyst", 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.
  4. 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.
  5. To betray for money or other things.
  6. (slang) To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.
    • 1605 (first performance)​, Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Volpone, or The Foxe. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (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.
  7. (professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
  8. (reflexive, euphemistic) To work as a prostitute.
    Synonyms: sell one's body, turn tricks; see also Thesaurus:prostitute oneself
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
  • Chinese Pidgin English: sellum, 些林
  • Sranan Tongo: seri
TranslationsEdit
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

NounEdit

sell (plural sells)

  1. 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.
  2. (figurative, by extension) The promotion of an idea for acceptance.
    This is going to be a tough sell.
  3. An easy task.
  4. (colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.

See alsoEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From French selle, from Latin sella.

Alternative formsEdit

NounEdit

sell (plural sells)

  1. (obsolete) A seat or stool.
  2. (archaic) A saddle.

Etymology 3Edit

From Old Saxon seill or Old Norse seil. Cognate with Dutch zeel (“rope”), German Seil (“rope”).

NounEdit

sell (plural sells)

  1. (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 termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

AnagramsEdit

BretonEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

sell m

  1. look, glance

ChineseEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English sell.

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

sell

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to sell; to promote services or products; to promote a viewpoint

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Pennsylvania GermanEdit

EtymologyEdit

Cognate to German selbig (“the same (one)”).

PronounEdit

sell

  1. that one

DeterminerEdit

sell

  1. that
    • 1954, Albert F. Buffington, A Pennsylvania German grammar, pages 32 and 81:
      sell Haus datt driwwe
      that house over there
      […]
      In sellem alde Glaawe maag en bissel Waahret schtecke.
      In that old belief there may be a bit of truth.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:sell.

InflectionEdit

masculine feminine neuter plural
nominative
and
accusative 		seller selle,
selli		 sell selle,
selli
dative sellem,
sem		 sellere,
sellre,
seller		 sellem,
sem		 selle

ReferencesEdit

  • Earl C Haag, Pennsylvania German Reader and Grammar (2010), page 204

ScotsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old English sellan.

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle sellin, simple past sellt or sauld, past participle sellt or sauld)

  1. To sell.

WestrobothnianEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Norse sil, a word also recorded in Norway as sel, in Sweden as silder, sälder, standard Swedish sel, from the root of Old Norse seinn and síð.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

sĕll n (definite singular sellä, definite plural sella or selja)

  1. pool, calm water (occurring in the course of a stream)
    dä sellä gjär ’n mil langt
    The calm water at that place stretches for a mile.
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=sell&oldid=71750549"