Meaning of sell In English

• 0 to give something to someone else in return for money:

  • [ + two objects ] I sold him my car/I sold my car to him for $600.

  • We'll be selling the tickets at/for £50 each.

  • The stall sells drinks and snacks.

  • These baskets sell well (= a lot of them are bought).

  • Their last album sold over a hundred thousand copies.

  • How much does the phone sell for?

• 1 to persuade someone that an idea or plan is a good one and likely to be successful:

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

  • The filmmakers sold me on the idea that my book would work on the screen.

  • [ + two objects ] The chance of greater access to European markets would help sell the president the plan/sell the plan to the president.

  • In an interview, you have to sell yourself to the employer.

• 2 to give a thing or perform a service in exchange for money:

  • [ T ] The children sold lemonade.

  • [ I ] These baskets sell well (= people buy a lot of them).

• 3 to persuade someone to accept an idea or plan, or to cause something to be accepted:

  • [ T ] That is a plan we can easily sell to the school board.

• 4 to give something to someone else in return for money:

  • sell securities/shares/stock

  • sell a car/company/house

  • The 43% owner of the company indicated that it was ready to sell.

  • sell sth to sb/sth The partners plan to sell 40% of the company to investors.

  • sell sb sth We are going to sell him our car.

  • sell to sb/sth The site could be built on if the owners decided to sell to private developers.

  • sell sth at $10/$100, etc. It raised $180 million Monday by selling 7.2 million shares at $25 apiece.

  • sell sth at a loss/markup/profit The business was sold at an enormous profit.

  • sell sth for $10/$100, etc. How much did you sell your house for?

• 5 to have something available for people to buy:

  • sell goods/products/services

  • On either bank of the river are specialist shops selling designer clothes, books, music and art.

  • Its products are sold in 150 countries.

  • We sell directly via a contact sales force.

  • sell online/over the internet

• 6 to be bought in the quantities or the way specified:

  • sell fast/well The watches are selling well through the group's retail outlets.

  • sell at $10/$100, etc. The stock is currently selling at 11 times earnings estimates.

  • sell for $10/$100, etc. The games console will sell for $349.

  • The company had problems with overstocking and products that didn't sell.

  • The magazine is now selling 225,000 copies a week.

• 7 to make people want to buy something:

  • Price and delivery are only two elements of the marketing mix that sells products.

  • It's a cliche of advertising to say that "sex sells".

• 8 to persuade someone that an idea or plan is a good one, and likely to be successful:

  • He is trying to sell an idea for a TV comedy.

  • sell sth to sb The government sold spending cuts to the public as a way to get the economy growing again.

• 9 to persuade people that you have the right qualities or abilities for a particular job or in a particular situation:

  • The phone interview is your one chance to sell yourself.

• 10 to be bought quickly and in large numbers:

  • With-profits bonds have sold like hot cakes to older people looking for a low-risk, high return for their money.

• 11 an act of selling or trying to sell a product or service:

  • a difficult/hard/tough sell In spite of continuing drought conditions, artificial grass remains a hard sell.

  • Fear of unemployment make mortgage protection an easy sell.

• 12 an act of trying to persuade someone that something is a good idea:

  • a hard/difficult/tough sell Tax breaks for developers to build more-expensive housing would be a tough sell.

• 13 advice to sell shares in a particular company from a broker:

  • The broker SG Securities is moving its rating to a sell.

  • While Merrill has a neutral recommendation, we believe the shares are a sell.