sell up

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

1. intransitiveTo sell one's business or other major asset (such as a home).

   Synonyms: sell out

2. UKtransitiveTo sell all (of the assets of a company or person), in order to reduce its debts or gain liquid money.

   DCI Tom Barnaby: Oh, right. There was one more tiny thing. Your little problem up north when you were fined... How did you raise the money? Ken Beavers: Sold up. Everything. House, car, the flat in Spain.

   1998 May 6, Douglas Watkinson et al., “Death in Disguise”, in Midsomer Murders

   1 more example

   […] he was never known to give away a shilling or to do a good action, but was of a pleasant, sly, laughing mood, and would cut his joke and drink his glass with a tenant and sell him up the next day […]

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 9, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   Synonyms: sell out

3. salesbusinessTo upsell.

   He was not going to have salesman ^([sic]) sell up to a more expensive and more profitable car that was no better than his Ford.

   2003, H. Eugene Weiss, Chrysler, Ford, Durant and Sloan, page 37

   1 more example

   Attracting consumers with a low-priced feature item and then pointing out weaknesses in order to sell up to a more expensive […]

   2001, Montrose S. Sommers, James G. Barnes, Fundamentals of marketing, page 438