Definition of Sell short

1. Verb. Sell securities or commodities or foreign currency that is not actually owned by the seller, who hopes to cover (buy back) the sold items at a lower price and thus to earn a profit.

Category relationships: Commerce, Commercialism, Mercantilism
Generic synonyms: Sell

2. Verb. Underestimate the real value or ability of. "Don't sell your students short--they are just shy and don't show off their knowledge"
Generic synonyms: Underestimate, Underrate

Lexicographical Neighbors of Sell Short

sell-outs
sell-through
sell a bargain
sell down
sell down the river
sell ice to Eskimos
sell like hot cakes
sell my clothes, I'm going to heaven
sell off
sell on
sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage
sell one's soul
sell oneself short
sell out
sell past the close
sell short (current term)
sell someone a bill of goods
sell someone a pup
sell up
sell wolf tickets
sella
sella turcica
sellable
sellae
sellaite
sellar
sellas
selle
selled
sellee

Literary usage of Sell short

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded by John Russell Bartlett (1877)
"To sell short. In the sale of stocks, cotton, &c., to sell short is to agree to deliver the article sold, at a future day. Short transactions are a ..."

2. How to Write Moving Picture Plays by William Lewis Gordon (1914)
"WHERE TO SELL Short Stories, Poems, Etc. "Every Aspirant MUST HAVE IT" There are over one hundred publishers today buying short stories, serial stories, ..."

3. Sessional Papers by Ontario Legislative Assembly (1898)
"The tendency is to keep the price up and shove the price up, and then it is the few who have the nerve to sell short when it is almost impossible for the ..."

4. Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street by Henry Clews (1887)
"The Common Council lost a million, and their friends, whom they had advised to sell "short^" lost several millions. ..."

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