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Glite Dictionary
🙅 To discourage buying 🚫 To not sell ↩️ To cancel sale
to unsell

to unsell

8.4
To fail to sell even after trying
  • verb
  • /ʌnˈsɛl/
translation icon : no vender
  • Even with a discount, the old model seemed to unsell at the electronics store.

Examples

  • The new product continued to unsell despite the company's advertising campaign.

  • Several items in the clearance section have unsold for months.

  • They had to unsell the old inventory.

  • The store couldn't unsell the defective items.

  • The new product has been on the market for weeks, but it remains unsold despite our best advertising efforts.

  • After several unsuccessful marketing strategies, the company realized they were unselling their potential bestsellers.

  • Despite price reductions and promotions, the outdated model still unsold at the store.

Antonyms

to sell
∞ 1.0

To give something to someone for money

How Sellable

to sell out
65 2.8
to sell
∞ 1.0
to sell off
57 3.5
to unsell
8.4

Surface Forms

unsell infinitive
unselling present participle
unsells third person singular
unsold past
unsold past participle

Morphology

unsell = sell (semi-transparent) = un + sell

While structurally 'un-' + 'sell' suggests 'not sell', the intransitive sense 'to fail to sell / remain unsold' can be inferred but is less direct than an active negation and may confuse learners about agency.

Etymology

Unsell is built from un- 'not' and sell 'to give for money', so it literally feels like 'not sell'. That is why unsell can mean to fail to sell or to remain unsold even after you try to sell it.