going-out-of-business sale
2
3.5
- noun
- US
:
venta de liquidación
- The furniture in her grandparents' living room had been sold to them at a going-out-of-business sale by a salesman who swore the entire suite—couch, two club chairs, a side table, and a coffee table.
Examples
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If you are trying to find inexpensive video games for your children, keep an eye out for local going-out-of-business sales.
Blog text (24) -
NeoGeo and CD-i I don't think many people owned, same for 3DO... I have one, but I got it at a going out of business sale for 20 bucks... so it doesn't really count.
Blog text (14) -
It's a going-out-of-business sale for the baby boom generation.
Blog text (33) -
He had three final going-out-of-business sales.
Fiction book (1992) -
Gaddafi had a going-out-of-business sale on armoured vehicles.
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"This isn't like one of your going-out-of-business sales," she yells.
Fiction book (1992) -
Employees were telling customers Tuesday that a going-out-of-business sale had begun at the store at Academy Boulevard and Constitution Avenue, and signs inside and outside advertised the closing.
Blog text (4) -
I am not one for crowds (you know how it is when the word of a sale gets around, particularly a going-out-of-business sale), but I will check out their website to see if I can find anything I can't live without for a good price.
Blog text (28) -
Despite spending most of its time conducting a multi-decades going-out-of-business sale, the state government has (a) opened up absentee voting to everyone, whether or not you're away from home on election day, (b) recently implemented an online registration system, and (c) in 2015, will allow people to register as late as election day.
Blog text (27) -
The local bookstore is having a going-out-of-business sale, offering discounts on all merchandise before it closes permanently.
Synonyms
15
7.3
Closing a business and selling its assets to pay debts
9
4.2
People sell goods at very low prices because they must sell quickly
4
6.3
A sudden fall in stock or bond prices when many people try to get rid of them
4
2.1
A sale when a shop sells many items at low prices to make room for new stock
3
4.8
A sale with much lower prices to sell remaining goods when a shop closes
1
3.7
A sale of most goods at low prices when a business closes down
Antonyms
How Final
1
3.7
- US
2
3.5
- US
3
4.8
9
4.2
4
2.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
going-out-of-business + sale
The phrase is compositionally built: 'going out of business' literally describes a company closing, and 'sale' denotes goods offered for purchase, so a learner who knows those parts can infer it is a sale because the business is closing. The hyphenation is orthographic only and the meaning follows a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern of 'X sale' where X explains the reason for the sale, making it immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Going-out-of-business sale shows a clear image: a shop is going out — it is closing its business — so it holds a sale to sell everything fast. That's why the phrase means a sale with very low prices because the shop is 'closing permanently'.