sell
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (8)sold, sells, selling
- exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent“He sold his house in January”“She sells her body to survive and support her drug habit”Opposite buyMore general exchange, changeMore specific dispose, move, foist off, clear, sacrifice, syndicate, deaccession, bootleg, undersell, prostitute +11 moreInvolves give
- be sold at a certain price or in a certain way“These books sell like hot cakes”More general cost, beMore specific trade, fetch, retailSimilar deal
- persuade somebody to accept something“The French try to sell us their image as great lovers”More general persuade
- do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood“She deals in gold”“The brothers sell shoes”Synonyms: dealtradeMore general transactMore specific peddle, black marketeer, pyramid, deal, push, marketSimilar deal
- give up for a price or reward“She sold her principles for a successful career”More general surrender, cedeSimilar betray
- be approved of or gain acceptance“The new idea sold well in certain circles”More general exist, be
- be responsible for the sale of“All her publicity sold the products”
- deliver to an enemy by treachery“Judas sold Jesus”“The spy betrayed his country”Synonyms: betray
Noun (1)sells
- the activity of persuading someone to buy“it was a hard sell”Type of sale
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Verb to exchange goods for money
- Spanish
- vender
- French
- vendre
- German
- verkaufen
- Italian
- vendere
- Portuguese
- vender
- Turkish
- satmak
- Russian
- продава́ть prodavátʹ
- Arabic
- بَاعَ bāʕa
- Chinese
- 卖 mài
- Japanese
- 売る uru
36 more languages
- Dutch
- verkopen
- Polish
- sprzedawać
- Swedish
- sälja
- Greek
- πουλάω pouláo
- Korean
- 팔다 palda
- Indonesian
- menjual
- Vietnamese
- bán
- Hungarian
- elad
- Portuguese (PT)
- vender
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 賣 mài
- Albanian
- shes
- Breton
- gwerzhañ
- Catalan
- vendre
- Corsican
- vende
- Czech
- prodat
- Danish
- sælge
- Esperanto
- vendi
- Estonian
- müüma
- Finnish
- myydä
- Georgian
- გაყიდვა gaq̇idva
- Hebrew
- מכר makhár
- Icelandic
- selja
- Kurdish
- firotin
- Latvian
- pārdot
- Lithuanian
- parduoti
- Malagasy
- mivarotra
- Norwegian
- selge
- Romanian
- vinde
- Scottish Gaelic
- reic
- Serbo-Croatian
- prodati
- Slovak
- predávať
- Slovenian
- prodati
- Swahili
- kuuza
- Walloon
- vinde
- Welsh
- gwerthu
- Yiddish
- פֿאַרקויפֿן farkoyfn
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Self. Obs. or Scot. Ben Jonson
A sill. obsolete Geoffrey Chaucer
A cell; a house. obsolete Geoffrey Chaucer
Origin: F. selle, L. sella, akin to sedere to sit. See Sit.
1. A saddle for a horse. obsolete
He left his lofty steed with golden self.— Edmund Spenser
2. A throne or lofty seat. obsolete Edward Fairfax
Origin: OE. sellen, sillen, AS. sellan, syllan, to give, to deliver; akin to OS. sellian, OFries. sella, OHG. sellen, Icel. selja to hand over, to sell, Sw. sälja to sell, Dan. sælge, Goth. saljan to offer a sacrifice; all from a noun akin to E. sale. Cf. Sale.
1. To transfer to another for an equivalent; to give up for a valuable consideration; to dispose of in return for something, especially for money. It is the correlative of buy.
If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.— Matt. xix. 21.
I am changed; I'll go sell all my land.— William Shakespeare
☞ Sell is corellative to buy, as one party buys what the other sells. It is distinguished usually from exchange or barter, in which one commodity is given for another; whereas in selling the consideration is usually money, or its representative in current notes.
2. To make a matter of bargain and sale of; to accept a price or reward for, as for a breach of duty, trust, or the like; to betray.
You would have sold your king to slaughter.— William Shakespeare
3. To impose upon; to trick; to deceive; to make a fool of; to cheat. slang Charles Dickens
To sell one's life dearly, to cause much loss to those who take one's life, as by killing a number of one's assailants. — To sell (anything) out, to dispose of it wholly or entirely; as, he had sold out his corn, or his interest in a business.
1. To practice selling commodities.
I will buy with you, sell with you;... but I will not eat with you.— William Shakespeare
2. To be sold; as, corn sells at a good price.
To sell out, to sell one's whole stock in trade or one's entire interest in a property or a business.
An imposition; a cheat; a hoax. colloquial
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54