oversold

adjective over·sold \ ˌō-vər-ˈsōld \

Updated on: 18 Mar 2018

Definition of oversold

: likely to show a rise in price because of prior heavy selling and accompanying decline in price

an oversold stock

Recent Examples of oversold from the Web

Following the ugly case of David Dao, the Kentucky doctor who was dragged from an overbooked United Airlines flight, the U.S. airline industry vowed to fix the problem of oversold planes.

— hugo martin, latimes.com, "Airlines invest in tech startup to prevent booting passengers from overbooked flights," 10 Mar. 2018
Even before the release, there were multiple reports that indicated the White House knew the memo had been oversold.

— callum borchers, Washington Post, "Republicans hyped the Nunes memo. Then they dumped it on the Friday before the Super Bowl.," 2 Feb. 2018
The figures don't count passengers who accept travel vouchers or other offers to voluntarily give up their seat on an oversold flight.

— david koenig, Houston Chronicle, "Airline bumping of passengers falls to lowest rate ever," 8 Feb. 2018
The dollar’s 14-day Relative Strength Index versus the rand dropped below 30, the level showing that a currency is oversold.

— paul wallace, Bloomberg.com, "Rand's Ramaphosa Rally May Run Out of Steam," 20 Dec. 2017
But those policy changes were mostly designed to reduce oversold flights and didn’t address situations like the one Friday at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.

— USA TODAY, "Spirit boots breast-feeding woman from plane," 12 Dec. 2017
Federal law in the United States, however, requires compensation only for passengers who are bumped because their flight has been oversold, the FAA says.

— fredrick kunkle, Washington Post, "Flight disrupted? This firm will fight for compensation — for a fee.," 30 Oct. 2017
Rooker said hindsight shows that tax plan proponents oversold the amount of growth the cuts would generate.

— bryan lowry, kansascity, "Brownback’s Kansas is 'cautionary tale' on taxes, says Missouri’s McCaskill | The Kansas City Star," 11 Oct. 2017
Billboard has confirmed that the local Italian promoter oversold the venue by at least the double amount of tickets for the show at the Atlantico Live Roma.

— suzette fernandez, Billboard, "Maluma Cancels Concert In Rome Citing Security Risks," 6 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'oversold.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of oversold

circa 1890

in the meaning defined above

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