Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use sell in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Sell means to transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money. Example: “She sold her old car very quickly.”

Examples of sell by meaning

verbTo transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.

  • She sold her old car very quickly.
  • I'll sell you three books for a hundred dollars.
  • Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.

verbTo be sold.

  • This old stock will never sell.
  • The corn sold for a good price.

verbTo promote (a particular viewpoint).

  • My boss is very old-fashioned and I'm having a lot of trouble selling the idea of working at home occasionally.

verbTo trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.

  • The striker sold Daniel Agger with the best dummy of the night before placing his shot past keeper Pepe Reina.2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Blackpool 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC

verbTo throw under the bus; to let down one's own team in an endeavour, especially in a sport or a game.

  • He really sold in that match.

nounAn act of selling; sale.

  • Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier.1963, American Society of Travel Agents, ASTA Travel News, volume 32, page 55

nounThe promotion of an idea for acceptance.

  • This is going to be a tough sell.

nounAn imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.

  • It'll be an awful sell if at the end you have to acknowledge you've made a hash of it."1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 12”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC
  • What a sell for Lena!1922, Katherine Mansfield, The Doll's House (Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, 354)

More sentences with sell

  • The news that a hurricane had destroyed our beach house killed our plans to sell it.From the entry kill
  • The dealer wronged us by selling us this lemon of a car.From the entry wrong
  • They thought anything Elvis did would sell, but that was not true.From the entry would
  • Who knows? Maybe someday he'll finish writing his book and make lots of money selling it.From the entry who knows
  • Be careful of the ticket touts outside the arena; they are famed for selling counterfeits.From the entry tout
  • They went on an international road show to sell the shares to investors.From the entry show
  • If you're not careful, someone will sell you silverware that's really only silver plate.From the entry plate
  • Vendors were selling sunglasses, bagged snacks, and sundry other items from handcarts in the square.From the entry handcart
  • Our city offices sell a lot more land than our suburban offices.From the entry land
  • We've shut shown our reseller unit. We're only selling retail now.From the entry retail
  • They pirated the tanker and sailed to a port where they could sell the ship and cargo.From the entry pirate
  • Practical lighting can help sell the illusion that the film is a real situation.From the entry practical
  • We wanted to sell a turnkey plant, but they jobbed out the contract to small firms.From the entry job
  • The accused refused to reveal the source of the illegal drugs she was selling.From the entry source
  • Somebody dimed on me and I got arrested for selling marijuana.From the entry dime
  • We can sell you all the parts, or we can turnkey the entire unit.From the entry turnkey
  • Is there any way I can get you to reconsider selling your car?From the entry reconsider
  • He's selling new CD players for £20 each – that sounds a bit iffy to me.From the entry iffy
  • They downsized the division by offering attractive early-retirement packages and selling off an office building.From the entry downsize
  • It is not permitted to sell or otherwise distribute any copies.From the entry otherwise
  • They usually don't care about customs, but she was clearly planning on selling most of it.From the entry customs
  • The sports shop sells different kits of famous clubs, and equipment from all kind of sports.From the entry equipment
  • On mature reflection, I feel it would be wiser not to sell.From the entry mature
  • That pastry shop sells not just pastries, but all kinds of baked goods.From the entry pastry
  • That pastry shop sells not just pastry, but all kinds of baked goods.From the entry pastry
  • If you sell one of those cars, your commission will be chump change.From the entry chump change
  • Have a rummage through the attic and see if you can find anything worth selling.From the entry rummage
  • The T-shirt was a giveaway from the company that sells the software.From the entry giveaway

Meaning of sell

  1. verb To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.
  2. verb To be sold.
  3. verb To promote (a product or service) although not being paid in any direct way or at all.

Full definition of sell

Questions about sell in a sentence

How do you use sell in a sentence?
Sell is used as a verb and noun. For example: “She sold her old car very quickly.”
What is a short sentence with sell?
“What a sell for Lena!”
What does sell mean?
Sell means to transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sell (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use sell in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/sell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.