auction house
24
3.0
- noun
- /ˈɔːkʃən haʊs/
- If you bring a valuable item to an auction house, you will have a chance to sell it to the highest bidder.
- art auction houses
- auction houses and collectors
- auction houses and dealers
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Watch on YouTubeI do business with a, with an auction house in the UK called Wilson's Auction.
- I do business with a, with an auction house in the UK called Wilson's Auction.
- And I think that's what we're we're we're doing better than any other online auction house.
- And so people are being very cautious now and I think the auction houses problems have been to our benefit.
- And since then, I'm by now, I think connected to about through the auction houses, all of them in Central Europe, mostly Austria.
Examples
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Crispins is the oldest auction house in the United States.
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The auction house Christie's provides some free art auction records from past auctions that have taken place since 1991.
Academic text (2015) -
The big auction houses sent people out from New York.
Fiction book (2001) -
Possible markets for the sale of art include auction houses or the secondary market, and commercial galleries or the retail market.
Academic text (2015) -
Most commercial fish in Hawaii are sold at wholesale fish auction houses.
Academic text (1993) -
There are two principal auction houses, one on the island of Oahu and one on the Big Island.
Academic text (1993) -
Ronnie called the auction house to verify a quote.
Fiction book (1997) -
Renowned auction houses such as Christie's International PLC and Sotheby's Holdings Inc. plan to hold important sales online.
Academic text (1999) -
Consigned to a Lynchburg auction house, the comics sold in broken lots brought $1,345.67; the La-Z-Boy chair brought $38.21.
Fiction book (1997) -
Fleming worked closely with museum curators, art dealers, auction houses, and private collectors to redate artifacts and reveal fakes.
Academic text (2004)
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a company that organizes auctions' is directly and compositionally derived from 'auction' (a public sale) combined with 'house' understood as a firm or business. This straightforward noun–noun compound follows common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the overall meaning.
Etymology
Auction house comes from the simple image of an auction — a loud public sale where people shout bids — held in a house or building where buyers meet. So, it means a 'company' or 'place' that runs these public sales.