Word.ws English Dictionary

sell the family silver

sell the family silver verb: to sell one's property (not necessarily heirlooms) in an attempt to avoid or escape financial difficulties.

Verb

sell the family silver (third-person singular simple present sells the family silver, present participle selling the family silver, simple past and past participle sold the family silver)

  1. (dated, idiomatic) To sell one's property (not necessarily heirlooms) in an attempt to avoid or escape financial difficulties.
    • For two years he fretted in France, selling the family silver to support himself1939, Henry Louis Mencken, editor, The American Mercury, volume 48
    • Though he had at last been reinstated in his rank of Captain-General, the Chilean Treasury seemed in no hurry to pay his pension and Dona Rosita was forced to sell the family silver.1969, Stephen Clissold, Bernardo O'Higgins and the Independence of Chile, page 239
  2. (idiomatic) To sell a valuable or critical asset, especially for immediate or short-term gain.
    • And if it is close, when is it sensible to sell the family silver?1988, Lee E. Preston, editor, International and Comparative Studies, volume 1, →ISBN, page 161
    • There have been resignations of government officials over anomalies in the privatisation of the copper industry, while the charge that the government is selling the family silver is still voiced frequently.2000, Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, editor, The African Economy: Policy, Institutions and the Future, →ISBN, page 192

Forms of sell the family silver

third-person singular presentsells the family silver
present participleselling the family silver
past participlesold the family silver
pastsold the family silver

Origin of sell the family silver

Referring to the selling of heirlooms. Use in reference to national policy popularized in a paraphrasing of a speech in 1985 by former British prime minister Harold Macmillan: “The sale of assets is common with individuals and states when they run into financial difficulties. First, all the Georgian silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the saloon. Then the Canalettos go,” in reference the privatization policy of Margaret Thatcher.

Questions about sell the family silver

What does sell the family silver mean?
Sell the family silver means to sell one's property (not necessarily heirlooms) in an attempt to avoid or escape financial difficulties.
What part of speech is sell the family silver?
Sell the family silver is a verb.
What is the past tense of sell the family silver?
The past tense of sell the family silver is sold the family silver.

Words near sell the family silver in the dictionary

  1. sell sides
  2. sell snow to Eskimos
  3. sell someone a bill of goods
  4. sell someone a pup
  5. sell the dummy
  6. sell the family silver
  7. sell the news
  8. sell the pass
  9. sell up
  10. sell wolf tickets
  11. sell woof tickets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sell the family silver (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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