Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Sell

Sell (sĕl), n. Self. [Obs. or Scot.] B. Jonson.

Sell, n. A sill. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Sell, n. A cell; a house. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Sell, n. [F. selle, L. sella, akin to sedere to sit. See Sit.] 1. A saddle for a horse. [Obs.]

He left his lofty steed with golden self. Spenser.

2. A throne or lofty seat. [Obs.] Fairfax.

Sell, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sold; p. pr. & vb. n. Selling.] [OE. sellen, sillen, AS. sellan, syllan, to give, to deliver; akin to OS. sellian, OFries. sella, OHG. sellen, Icel. selja to hand over, to sell, Sw. sälja to sell, Dan. sælge, Goth. saljan to offer a sacrifice; all from a noun akin to E. sale. Cf. Sale.] 1. To transfer to another for an equivalent; to give up for a valuable consideration; to dispose of in return for something, especially for money.

If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. Matt. xix. 21.

I am changed; I'll go sell all my land. Shak.

☞ Sell is corellative to buy, as one party buys what the other sells. It is distinguished usually from exchange or barter, in which one commodity is given for another; whereas in selling the consideration is usually money, or its representative in current notes.

2. To make a matter of bargain and sale of; to accept a price or reward for, as for a breach of duty, trust, or the like; to betray.

You would have sold your king to slaughter. Shak.

3. To impose upon; to trick; to deceive; to make a fool of; to cheat. [Slang] Dickens.

To sell one's life dearly, to cause much loss to those who take one's life, as by killing a number of one's assailants. — To sell (anything) out, to dispose of it wholly or entirely; as, he had sold out his corn, or his interest in a business.

Sell, v. i. 1. To practice selling commodities.

I will buy with you, sell with you; . . . but I will not eat with you. Shak.

2. To be sold; as, corn sells at a good price.

To sell out, to sell one's whole stockk in trade or one's entire interest in a property or a business.

Sell, n. An imposition; a cheat; a hoax. [Colloq.]

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.