sell one's soul
sell one's soul verb: to abandon one's spiritual values or moral principles for wealth or other benefits.
Verb
sell one's soul (third-person singular simple present sells one's soul, present participle selling one's soul, simple past and past participle sold one's soul)
- To abandon one's spiritual values or moral principles for wealth or other benefits.
- He murmured in her ear. “You are Marguerite, for you could fire a man's heart so that he would sell his soul to gain you.”1877, Charles Reade, chapter 3, in A Woman-Hater
- So I resolved to acquire a dog, and bought one from a prospector, who was stony-broke and would have sold his soul for a drink.1910, John Buchan, chapter 3, in Prester John, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- sell one's soul to the devil
Synonyms of sell one's soul
Forms of sell one's soul
| third-person singular present | sells one's soul |
|---|---|
| present participle | selling one's soul |
| past participle | sold one's soul |
| past | sold one's soul |
Origin of sell one's soul
From the medieval legend of Faust, who made a contract with the devil, exchanging his soul for worldly gains.
Questions about sell one's soul
- What does sell one's soul mean?
- Sell one's soul means to abandon one's spiritual values or moral principles for wealth or other benefits.
- What part of speech is sell one's soul?
- Sell one's soul is a verb.
- What is the past tense of sell one's soul?
- The past tense of sell one's soul is sold one's soul.
Words near sell one's soul in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sell one's soul (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sell one's soul.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sell one's soul.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sell_one%27s_soul. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.