Word.ws English Dictionary

sell-out

sell-out is the alternative form of sellout.

Meaning of sellout

Noun

sellout (plural sellouts)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) An action in which principles are compromised for personal gain.
    • A statement by the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights (CLGR), which organized the protest, charged that WPIX's sale of air time to the Anita Bryant Ministries "is a sell-out of the more than one million lesbians and gay residents in the WPIX broadcast service area.1980 April 19, Philip Shehadi, “Bryant Program Sparks Protest”, in Gay Community News, page 3
  2. (idiomatic, informal) A person who sells out, who compromises their principles for financial gain or some other advantage.
    • The rock star used to be hardcore, but now he's just a sellout.
  3. The selling of an entire stock of something, especially tickets for an entertainment or sports event.
    • I performed in front of a sellout crowd.

Forms of sell-out

pluralsell-outs

Origin of sell-out

Deverbal from sell out.

Questions about sell-out

What is sell-out the alternative form of?
Sell-out is the alternative form of sellout.

Words near sell-out in the dictionary

  1. sell-by dates
  2. sell-down
  3. sell-downs
  4. sell-off
  5. sell-offs
  6. sell-out
  7. sell-outs
  8. sell-sword
  9. sell-swords
  10. sell-through
  11. sell-throughs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sell-out (page history and authors); sellout (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “sell-out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sell-out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.