Etimology
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.
verb
sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle selling, simple past and past participle sold)
(transitive, ditransitive, intransitive) To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.
(ergative) To be sold.
(transitive) To promote a product or service.
(transitive) To promote a particular viewpoint.
(transitive) To betray for money or other things.
(transitive, slang) To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.
(transitive, professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
Examples
Synonyms: peddle, vend
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.
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.
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.
My boss is very old-fashioned and I'm having a lot of trouble selling the idea of working at home occasionally.
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.
House was jammed again that night, and we sold this crowd the same way.
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.
Related words
antonyms
buy
noun
sell (plural sells)
An act of selling; sale.
(figurative, by extension) The promotion of an idea for acceptance.
An easy task.
(colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.
Examples
Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier.
This is going to be a tough sell.
"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."
What a sell for Lena!
Etimology
From French selle, from Latin sella.
noun
sell (plural sells)
(obsolete) A seat or stool.
(archaic) A saddle.
Examples
The tyrant proud frown’d from his loftie cell, [...].
turning to that place, in which whyleare / He left his loftie steed with golden sell, / And goodly gorgeous barbes, him found not theare [...].
Etimology
From Old Saxon seill or Old Norse seil. Cognate with Dutch zeel (“rope”), German Seil (“rope”).
noun
sell (plural sells)
(regional, obsolete) A rope (usually for tying up cattle, but can also mean any sort of rope).
Examples
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".