Auction
['ɔːkʃ(ə)n] or ['ɔkʃən]
Definition
(noun.) the public sale of something to the highest bidder.
(noun.) a variety of bridge in which tricks made in excess of the contract are scored toward game; now generally superseded by contract bridge.
(verb.) sell at an auction.
Edited by Constantine--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A public sale of property to the highest bidder, esp. by a person licensed and authorized for the purpose; a vendue.
(n.) The things sold by auction or put up to auction.
(v. t.) To sell by auction.
Checked by Clive
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Vendue, cant, public sale, auction sale.
Editor: Maris
Definition
n. a public sale in which the bidder offers an increase on the price offered by another and the articles go to him who bids highest.—v.t. to sell by auction.—adj. Auc′tionary.—n. Auctioneer′ one who is licensed to sell by auction.—v.t. to sell by auction.—Dutch auction a kind of mock auction at which the salesman starts at a high price and comes down till he meets a bidder.
Checker: Nicole
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of an auction in a general way, is good. If you hear the auctioneer crying his sales, it means bright prospects and fair treatment from business ventures. To dream of buying at an auction, signifies close deals to tradesmen, and good luck in live stock to the farmer. Plenty, to the housewife is the omen for women. If there is a feeling of regret about the dream, you are warned to be careful of your business affairs.
Editor: Sharon
Examples
- Will looked after him a moment, and could see that he did not re-enter the auction-room, but appeared to be walking towards the road. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I am to be sold at the auction tomorrow! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- In a few days we shall be sent off to auction, Tom. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- In the fall of 1858 I sold out my stock, crops and farming utensils at auction, and gave up farming. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- I stopped my horse lately where a great number of people were collected at an auction of merchants' goods. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- You may die, or fail, and then Topsy be hustled off to auction, spite of all I can do. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- One day at an auction-room he secured a stack of twenty unbound volumes of the North American Review for two dollars. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
Editor: Tracy