sell

From Proto-Celtic *stillom, cognate to Welsh syll and Old Irish sell.


sell

(Hong Kong Cantonese) to sell; to promote services or products; to promote a viewpoint


sell

She sold her old car very quickly.

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

Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.

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:

en:peddle, vend, supply in exchange for money

(transitive, ditransitive, intransitive) To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.

This old stock will never sell.

The corn sold for a good price.

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:

en:promote (a product or service) although without pay

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

My boss is very old-fashioned and I'm having a lot of trouble selling the idea of working at home occasionally.

(transitive) To promote (a particular viewpoint).

(transitive) To betray for money or other things.

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):

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:

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:

(transitive, slang) To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(transitive, professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.

He's selling!

He really sold in that match.

(Australia, slang, intransitive) To throw under the bus; to let down one's own team in an endeavour, especially in a sport or a game.

en-verb

sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle selling, simple past and past participle sold)

sells (present singular third-person)
selling (participle present)
sold (participle past)
sold (past)

buy when it snows(,/ and) sell when it goes

don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear

sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage

desc

Chinese Pidgin English: sellum, 些林 (Chinese spelling)

Sranan Tongo: seri

аҭира

to agree to transfer goods or provide services for payment

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-. Compare Danish sælge, Swedish sälja, Icelandic selja.


sell

Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier.

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

This is going to be a tough sell.

(figurative, by extension) The promotion of an idea for acceptance.

"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:

What a sell for Lena!

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

(colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.


sell

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:

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:


sell

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".

(regional, obsolete) A rope (usually for tying up cattle, but can also mean any sort of rope).

From Old Saxon seill or Old Norse seil. Cognate with Dutch zeel (“rope”), German Seil (“rope”).


sell

neuter nominative/accusative singular of seller: that

seller (masculine nominative singular)
selle (feminine nominative singular)
selli (feminine nominative singular)
sell (neuter nominative singular)
selle (nominative singular)
selli (nominative singular)
sellem (dative masculine singular)
sem (dative masculine singular)
sellere (dative feminine singular)
sellre (dative feminine singular)
seller (dative feminine singular)
sellem (dative neuter singular)
sem (dative neuter singular)
selle (dative singular)
seller (accusative masculine singular)
selle (accusative feminine singular)
selli (accusative feminine singular)
sell (accusative neuter singular)
selle (accusative singular)
selli (accusative singular)


sell

head

sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle sellin, simple past sellt or sauld, past participle sellt or sauld)

sells (present singular third-person)
sellin (participle present)
sellt (past)
sauld (past)
sellt (participle past)
sauld (participle past)