sell-off

1 of 2

noun

: a usually sudden sharp decline in security prices accompanied by increased volume of trading

sell off

2 of 2

verb

sold off; selling off; sells off

intransitive verb

: to suffer a drop in prices

Examples of sell-off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Noun
Trump officials have also said that a public lands sell-off is not part of the president’s agenda. Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 30 Apr. 2026 Other names linked to OpenAI also saw significant sell-offs, including cloud computing providers CoreWeave, down 6%, and Oracle, down 4%. Rob Wile, NBC news, 28 Apr. 2026
Verb
Investors sold off defense stocks such as Northrop Grumman , Lockheed Martin , RTX and L3Harris Technologies after tensions in the Middle East appeared to finally be thawing. Lisa Kailai Han, CNBC, 25 Apr. 2026 But elsewhere, traders sold off. Jim Edwards, Fortune, 23 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for sell-off

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1976, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1976, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sell-off was in 1976

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Sell-off.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sell-off. Accessed 1 May. 2026.

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