Meanings
- IrelandUKuncountableThe sale of alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises.
Lora Jones (27 March 2018), “Pubs in danger: Six charts on how the British drink”, in BBC News, BBC The volume of beer sold in supermarkets and off-licences (off-trade) in the UK topped the volume sold in pubs, clubs and restaurants (on-trade) for the first time in 2014.
2 more examples
Distribution networks are particularly chaotic in the ‘on’-trade which has steadily lost ground to the ‘off’-trade. Estimates for the volumes of wines consumed in public vary wildly but now usually point down towards to 25%.
1998, Pierre Spahni, Swiss Wine Market Report, Woodhead Publishing, page 56The off-trade has been growing at the expense of the on-trade. Traditionally, wide choices of wine have not been available through public houses in the UK. With the growing interest in wine, this absence of good wine in on-trade establishments may have aided the growth in off-trade sales.
2004, Kym Anderson, David Norman, The World's Wine Markets: Globalization at Work, Edward Elgar Publishing, page 133
Synonyms & antonyms
Cite this entry
on-trade. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on-trade
“on-trade.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on-trade. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on-trade,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on-trade.
Source: on-trade on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.