Dictionary

sell up en · VERB

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To sell one's business or other major asset (such as a home).
2. (UK, transitive) To sell all (of the assets of a company or person), in order to reduce its debts or gain liquid money.
   • […] he was never known to give away a shilling or to do a good action, but was of a pleasant, sly, laughing mood, and would cut his joke and drink his glass with a tenant and sell him up the next day […] 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 9, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
   • DCI Tom Barnaby: Oh, right. There was one more tiny thing. Your little problem up north when you were fined... How did you raise the money? Ken Beavers: Sold up. Everything. House, car, the flat in Spain. 1998 May 6, Douglas Watkinson et al., “Death in Disguise”, in Midsomer Murders:
3. (qualifier:sales) To upsell.
   • Attracting consumers with a low-priced feature item and then pointing out weaknesses in order to sell up to a more expensive […] 2001, Montrose S. Sommers, James G. Barnes, Fundamentals of marketing, page 438:
   • He was not going to have salesman ^([sic]) sell up to a more expensive and more profitable car that was no better than his Ford. 2003, H. Eugene Weiss, Chrysler, Ford, Durant and Sloan, page 37:

Forms

Coordinates

close up · sell off · close down

Deriveds

sell-up

Relateds

sell down

Synonyms

sell out · sell out