garage sale
40
1.2
- noun
- /ɡəˈrɑːʒ seɪl/
- US
:
venta de garaje
- I went with some friends to a community garage sale at our fairgrounds over the weekend.
And she would take us, you know, to to garage sales and that sort of thing.
- And she would take us, you know, to to garage sales and that sort of thing.
Examples
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We could have a garage sale.
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Enid has set up a garage sale in front of her apartment building.
Fiction book (2001) -
I met him at a garage sale.
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Or maybe she bought it at a garage sale.
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We can have a garage sale.
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On the way, he stopped at a garage sale.
Fiction book (1998) -
Recently, I acquired something at a garage sale in San Francisco.
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Where we live, our experience has been that garage sales aren't very profitable.
Blog text (9) -
I sat down on one of the ice-cream-parlor-style chairs we had bought at a garage sale a few weeks before.
Fiction book (2002) -
Last Saturday, we sold toys and clothes at our garage sale to declutter the house.
Synonyms
37
2.3
An outdoor market where people sell used things like clothes or furniture
33
1.6
A sale outside a home where people sell used things
6
2.3
An event where people sell used or donated things to raise money for charity
A sale where people buy used or donated things to raise money for charity
An outdoor market where people sell things from the back of their car
An outdoor market where people sell things from the back of their cars
How Big
37
2.3
- US
40
1.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense of a "sale" taking place at or around a "garage" is directly compositional: 'garage' provides the location and 'sale' the event, so a learner who knows both words can infer a sale held at someone's garage. Although the cultural detail that this typically involves used household items and an outdoor/yard setting is not fully specified by the words alone, the overall meaning is immediately recoverable and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically (e.g. yard sale, car-boot sale).
Etymology
Garage sale comes from the simple picture of people putting old things in their garage or driveway and having a sale for neighbors. So, the phrase now means 'a sale of used household items' held at someone's home.