wholesale

plural wholesales

1. countableuncountablebusinessThe sale of products, often in large quantities, to retailers or other merchants.

   Synonyms: bulk supply

comparative more wholesale · superlative most wholesale

1. Of or relating to sale in large quantities, for resale.
2. figurativelyExtensive, indiscriminate, all-encompassing; blanket.

   The bombing resulted in wholesale destruction.

   3 more examples

   But beyond these cut-offs, to avoid the wholesale alteration of all mileposting and mileages—of bridges and culverts, for example—the original mileposts have remained unaltered.

   1946 July and August, “Mileposts and their Peculiarities”, in Railway Magazine, page 217

   By wholesale omission of connections and by the use of a microscopic scale of photographic reproduction which makes some of the most important tables difficult to read, the size has been cut down from last winter's 580 to 520 pages only.

   1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: London Midland Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 593

   With financial losses emerging in 1957, the BTC abandoned the diesel pilot scheme in favour of wholesale orders for untried designs.

   2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43

comparative more wholesale · superlative most wholesale

1. In bulk or large quantity.
2. figurativelyIndiscriminately.

   It still feels unnerving to some, even those caught in the crossfire, to see injuries invented wholesale and lies accepted by the highest court in the land.

   2023 June 30, Melissa Gira Grant, “The Supreme Court Doesn’t Care That the Gay Wedding Website Case Is Based on Fiction”, in The New Republic, archived from the original on 02 Sep 2025

present singular third person wholesales · participle present wholesaling · participle past wholesaled · past wholesaled

1. To sell at wholesale.