sell
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give”), later "give up for money", from Proto-Germanic *saljaną. 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, intransitive) To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.
- I'll sell you all three for a hundred dollars.
- Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.
- (ergative) To be sold.
- This old stock will never sell.
- The corn sold for a good price.
- 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.
- To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.
- I don't know what she was selling when she pretended she liked him.
- 2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Liverpool 2 - 1 Liverpool”, 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.
- (professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from sell
Translations[edit]
to agree to transfer goods or provide services
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to be sold
to trick, cheat, or manipulate someone
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Quotations[edit]
- To trick, or cheat someone.
- (Can we date this quote?) Mark Twain, chapter 23, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
- House was jammed again that night, and we sold this crowd the same way.
Noun[edit]
sell (plural sells)
- An act of selling.
- This is going to be a tough sell.
- An easy task.
- 1922: What a sell for Lena! - Katherine Mansfield, The Doll's House (Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, 354)
- (colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax.
- 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 12
- "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."
- 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 12
Etymology 2[edit]
From French selle, from Latin sella.
Alternative forms[edit]
- selle (obsolete)
Noun[edit]
sell (plural sells)
- (obsolete) A seat or stool.
- (archaic) A saddle.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ii:
- turning to that place, in which whyleare / He left his loftie steed with golden sell, / And goodly gorgeous barbes, him found not theare [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ii:
Anagrams[edit]
Breton[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- IPA: /sɛl/
Noun[edit]
sell m
Scots[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old English sellan.
Pronunciation[edit]
- IPA: /sɛl/
Verb[edit]
tae sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle sellin, simple past sellt or sauld, past participle sellt or sauld)
- To sell.
Categories:
- English terms with homophones
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English verbs
- English ergative verbs
- English slang
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English colloquialisms
- English dated terms
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English archaic terms
- English irregular verbs
- Breton nouns
- Scots terms derived from Old English
- Scots verbs
