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to sell off

to sell off

57 3.5
To quickly get rid of things by offering them at low prices
  • phrasal verb
  • /sɛl ɔf/
translation icon : liquidar
  • The store decided to sell off last season's clothing at half the original price.
  • sell off property
  • government sell off assets
  • begin to sell off

Did you see how stocks sold off a lot yesterday?

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Examples

  • Walter was just selling off some land.

  • I've made a list of my assets, and I plan to sell off whatever I don't need.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Ultimately you sell off your losing position and then you lock in your loss.

  • So when the stock market is selling off, it's nothing more than things going on sale.

  • I went back home to sell off the rest of my stuff.

  • That means that the company is in such trouble that we're going to shut it down and sell off all the assets.

  • Knight had no choice but to sell off the stocks it had bought.

  • The main house and some ancillary properties will be sold off.

  • We've hit that mark and we're now seeing these people start selling off these assets.

  • Following the war, the government sold off the fleet for roughly 28 cents on the dollar.

    Academic text (2017)

Synonyms

to move
vsto sell off
250 6.3

Sell goods, often to clear old stock

focuses on rapid discounted disposal to remove surplus quickly
to liquidate
vsto sell off
  • Specialized
25 7.3

To sell a company's goods and property to pay debts

aims at quick discounted clearance of surplus stock not at debt repayment
to auction off
vsto sell off
24 3.5

To sell something to the person who offers the most money at a public sale

focuses on quick discounted clearance aimed at removing surplus not bidding methods
to divest
vsto sell off
  • Specialized
10 7.5

Sell off an asset or part of a business

focuses on rapid discounted removal of surplus rather than planned restructuring
to close out
vsto sell off
  • US
3 4.3

Sell all remaining stock at low prices to end a business

focuses on quick disposal of surplus stock without closing the operation
to liquidize
vsto sell off
  • US
7.5

To sell all goods and things you own to get cash

focuses on rapid discounted clearance of surplus rather than just converting assets to cash
to liquidate investment
vsto sell off
  • Specialized
6.4

To sell investments to get cash

focuses on fast clearance at reduced prices to get rid of surplus

Antonyms

1.0

To continue doing something or stay in the same state

72 1.6

To keep something instead of selling or giving it away

How Privatized

to denationalize
  • Specialized
8.4
to sell off
57 3.5
transfer
355 3.2
to outsource
65 5.3
to delegate
45 3.7

Surface Forms

sell off infinitive
sold off past
sold off past participle
selling off present participle
sells off third person singular

Morphology

sell + off

The core idea of disposing of something is derivable from 'sell' (transfer ownership) plus 'off' (indicating removal or getting rid of), so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer that it means to sell something away. However, finer aspects—selling quickly, often at reduced prices or to clear surplus—are pragmatic/presuppositional details that are not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so the expression is only partially compositional.

Etymology

Sell off comes from the simple image of a shopkeeper taking old goods off the shelf and selling them quickly and cheaply to clear space or get money. So, it means 'to sell something quickly, often at reduced prices'.