sell

present singular third person sells · participle present selling · participle past sold · past sold

1. ditransitiveintransitivetransitiveTo transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.

   Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.

   4 more examples

   She sold her old car very quickly.

   I'll sell you three books for a hundred dollars.

   If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 19:21

   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.

   2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

   Synonyms: peddle, vend · Antonyms: buy, purchase, aby, buy, cheap, procure, purchase, snap up

2. ergativeTo be sold.

   This old stock will never sell.

   1 more example

   The corn sold for a good price.

3. transitiveTo promote (a product or service) although not being paid in any direct way or at all.

   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.

   2016, “The Fetal Kick Catalyst”, in The Big Bang Theory

4. transitiveTo 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. transitiveTo betray for money or other things.

   Synonyms: sell the pass, sell down the river, sell out, assfuck, betray, burn, cop out, cross out

6. slangtransitiveTo trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.

   House was jammed again that night, and we sold this crowd the same way.

   1884, Mark Twain, chapter XXIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

   2 more examples

   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.

   1605 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Ben: Ionson His Volpone or The Foxe, [London]: […] [George Eld] for Thomas Thorppe, published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page)

   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.

   2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Blackpool 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC

7. slangtransitivegovernmentTo pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
8. intransitiveslangTo throw under the bus; to let down one's own team in an endeavour, especially in a sport or a game.

   He's selling!

   1 more example

   He really sold in that match.

plural sells

1. An act of selling; sale.

   Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier.

   1963, American Society of Travel Agents, ASTA Travel News, volume 32, page 55

2. broadlyfigurativelyThe promotion of an idea for acceptance.

   This is going to be a tough sell.

3. An easy task.
4. colloquialdatedAn imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.

   What a sell for Lena!

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

   1 more example

   "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[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 12”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC

plural sells · alternative obsolete selle

1. obsoleteA seat or stool.

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

   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, stanza 7, page 56

2. archaicA saddle.

   Then she gave unto him a horse so good, And therewith a new sell; "And never shalt thou the way inquire, Thy horse will find it well."

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 169

   1 more example

   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, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

plural sells

1. obsoleteregionalA 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".

plural Sells

1. A surname.