sell
/sɛl/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms sells selling sold selle
- verb (transitive, ditransitive, intransitive) To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money. “She sold her old car very quickly.”
- verb (ergative) To be sold. “This old stock will never sell.”
- verb (transitive) To promote (a product or service) although not being paid in any direct way or at all.
- verb (transitive) 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.”
- verb (transitive) To betray for money or other things.
- verb (transitive, slang) To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.
- verb (transitive, professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
- verb (slang, intransitive) To throw under the bus; to let down one's own team in an endeavour, especially in a sport or a game. “He's selling!”
- noun An act of selling; sale.
- noun (figurative, by extension) The promotion of an idea for acceptance. “This is going to be a tough sell.”
- noun An easy task.
- noun (colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.
- noun (obsolete) A seat or stool.
- noun (archaic) A saddle.
- noun (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".”
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
peddle vend sell the pass sell down the river sell out assfuck betray burn cop out cross out cross up double-cross do someone dirty do the dirty on false go back on knife let down play someone false quisle deal trade
Antonyms
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-.
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”).
From French selle, from Latin sella.
From Old Saxon seill or Old Norse seil. Cognate with Dutch zeel (“rope”), German Seil (“rope”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Self. [Obs. or Scot.] B. Jonson.
- noun A sill. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun A cell; a house. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun A saddle for a horse. [Obs.]
Etymology [F. selle, L. sella, akin to sedere to sit. See Sit.]
Etymology [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. s, Goth. saljan to offer a sacrifice; all from a noun akin to E. sale. Cf. Sale.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sell”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details