sell
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
professional-wrestling
sports
war
wrestling
Etymology: 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-.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots sell (“to sell”), Danish sælge (“to sell”), Norwegian Bokmål selge (“to sell”), Norwegian Nynorsk selja, selje (“to sell”), Swedish sälja (“to sell”), Faroese and Icelandic selja (“to sell”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (saljan, “to pay tribute, make an offer”).
Inflected forms:
form: sells
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: selling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: sold
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sold
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sells
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.
pos: verb
tags: ditransitive
intransitive
transitive
examples: She sold her old car very quickly.
I'll sell you three books for a hundred dollars.
Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.
If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.
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.
gloss: To be sold.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: This old stock will never sell.
The corn sold for a good price.
gloss: To promote (a product or service) although not being paid in any direct way or at all.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To promote (a particular viewpoint).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: My boss is very old-fashioned and I'm having a lot of trouble selling the idea of working at home occasionally.
gloss: To betray for money or other things.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
examples: 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.
House was jammed again that night, and we sold this crowd the same way.
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.
gloss: To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
gloss: To throw under the bus; to let down one's own team in an endeavour, especially in a sport or a game.
pos: verb
tags: Australia
intransitive
slang
examples: He's selling!
He really sold in that match.
gloss: An act of selling; sale.
pos: noun
examples: Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier.
gloss: The promotion of an idea for acceptance.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
figuratively
examples: This is going to be a tough sell.
gloss: An easy task.
pos: noun
gloss: An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.
pos: noun
tags: colloquial
dated
examples: "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."
What a sell for Lena!
Synonyms: cheap
flog
hawk
monger
peddle
retail
sell
vend
Antonyms: buy
barter
Related words: sale
Derived words: backsell
buy low, sell high
buy when it snows 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
missell
mis-sell
no-sell
onsell
outsell
oversell
panic sell
presell
price to sell
proverbs should be sold in pairs
resell
sellability
sellable
sell against the box
sell away
sell bargains
sell-by date
sell by the candle
sell coals to Newcastle
sell coal to Newcastle
sell dearly
sell down
sell down the river
sellee
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 from under
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
sellsword
sell the dummy
sell the family silver
sell the news
sell the pass
sell-through
sell up
sell wolf tickets
…woof tickets
short sell
short-sell
sold again and got the money
supersell
undersell
unsell
unsellability
upsell
what wins on Sunday sells on Monday
hard sell
sell-up
soft sell
tough sell
Translations: