sell definition

English sell definition

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• IPA^(key): /sɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Homophone: cell

Etymology 1

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.

Verb

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 all three for a hundred dollars.

   Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.

   Synonym: peddle

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 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 960101342:

     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

Antonyms

• buy

Derived terms

Descendants

• Chinese Pidgin English: sellum, 些林
• Sranan Tongo: seri

Translations

Noun

sell (plural sells)

1. An act of selling.

   This is going to be a tough sell.

2. An easy task.
3. (colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.
   • 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."

   • 1922, Katherine Mansfield, The Doll's House (Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, 354)

     What a sell for Lena!

See also

• sale

Etymology 2

From French selle, from Latin sella.

Alternative forms

• selle (obsolete)

Noun

sell (plural sells)

1. (obsolete) A seat or stool.
   • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Fourth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, OCLC 940138160, stanza 7, page 56:

     The tyrant proud frown’d from his loftie cell, [...].

2. (archaic) A saddle.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book 2, canto 2:

     turning to that place, in which whyleare / He left his loftie steed with golden sell, / And goodly gorgeous barbes, him found not theare [...].

Etymology 3

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

Noun

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 terms

• bowsell

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Anagrams

• ELLs, Ells, ells

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Breton sell definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛl/

Noun

sell m

1. look, glance

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Chinese sell definition

Etymology

From English sell.

Pronunciation

Verb

sell

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

See also

• sales

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

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Pennsylvania German sell definition

Etymology

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

Pronoun

sell

1. that one

Determiner

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.

Inflection

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

References

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

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Scots sell definition

Etymology

From Old English sellan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛl/

Verb

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

1. To sell.

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Westrobothnian sell definition

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [sel], [séːɭ]
  • Rhymes: -el, -éːl

Noun

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.