- sale
- /seIl/ noun
1 ACT OF SELLING (C, U) the act of giving property, food, or other goods to someone in exchange for money(+ of): The use and sale of marijuana remains illegal. | The house sale was completed in two weeks. | make a sale (=sell something): Every time Harvey makes a sale he gets $50 commission. | lose a sale (=not sell something that you were going to sell): Rather than lose a sale, car salesmen will often bring down the price.2 for sale available to be bought: Excuse me, are these for sale? | There was a “for sale” sign in the yard. | put sth up for sale (=to make something, especially a house, available to be bought): Reluctantly, they put the family home up for sale.3 LOWER PRICES (C) a period of time when shops sell their goods at lower prices than usual: Marsdon's department store is having a sale this week. | the sales BrE (=when all the shops have a sale) | the January/summer/autumn etc sales: I picked up some real bargains in the January sales this year.4 EVENT (C) an event at which things are sold to the person who offers the highest price; auction 1: a sale of 17th century paintings5 salesa) (plural) the total number of products that a company sells during a particular period of time: We grossed more than $500,000 in sales last year. | sales figures/targets etc: We've already reached our sales targets for this year.b) (U) the part of a company that deals with selling products: She found a job in sales. | a sales manager6 sales drive/campaign an effort made by a company to try to increase the number of products it sells7 sales pitch/talk the things that someone says when they are trying to persuade you to buy something8 on salea) available to be bought in a shop: Stephen King's new novel will go on sale next week.b) especially AmE available to be bought at a lower price than usual: I could only afford to buy the CD player because it was on sale.9 (on) sale or return if a shop buys something on sale or return, it can return the goods that it is unable to sell—see also: bill of sale, jumble sale, point of sale
Longman dictionary of contemporary English. 2004.