Link Centre Dictionary

sell

UK/sɛl/ US/ˈsɛl/ very common slang
verb (8) noun (1)

verb

1.

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”
Antonyms
2.

be sold at a certain price or in a certain way

  • “These books sell like hot cakes”
3.

do business; offer for sale as for one''s livelihood

  • “She deals in gold”
  • “The brothers sell shoes”
Synonyms
4.

persuade somebody to accept something

  • “The French try to sell us their image as great lovers”
5.

give up for a price or reward

  • “She sold her principles for a successful career”
6.

deliver to an enemy by treachery

  • “Judas sold Jesus”
  • “The spy betrayed his country”
Synonyms
7.

be approved of or gain acceptance

  • “The new idea sold well in certain circles”
8.

be responsible for the sale of

  • “All her publicity sold the products”

noun

1.

the activity of persuading someone to buy

  • “it was a hard sell”

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • buy low, sell high
  • buy when it snows sell when it goes
  • cold sell
  • cost of goods sold
  • don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear
  • hard sell
  • I have a bridge to sell you
  • long sell
  • panic sell
  • soft sell
  • tough sell

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Related verbs

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.