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
Noun
Portfolios that expanded to include alternative assets such as private credit, private equity and venture capital fared far better during the sell-off. Eric Satz, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2023 Worst single-day sell-off in two years Out of the $30 billion in debt Warner Bros. Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 9 Nov. 2023 These sell-offs were on the heels of a warning from a European payments company that there would be economic slowdowns in Germany and other core markets. WSJ, 25 Oct. 2023 Unsurprisingly, this news, along with Musk’s gloomy Cybertruck outlook, has caused a sell-off of Tesla stock in the days since. Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 20 Oct. 2023 The news shocked investors, triggering a broad sell-off in China’s property stocks. Laura He, CNN, 10 Oct. 2023 His comments prompted a sell-off worth as much as $25 billion in market value in luxury stocks. Prarthana Prakash, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2023 This meant that Alameda’s business and FTX’s were deeply entwined and that the value of Alameda’s holdings—indeed, its very solvency—was incredibly vulnerable to a sell-off in FTT. Joel Khalili, WIRED, 28 Sep. 2023 Investors had long feared that possibility, which meant that some of the Fed's more hawkish moves led to stock market sell-offs. Marley Jay, NBC News, 20 Sep. 2023
Verb
Paramount has cut a deal to sell off its Bellator mixed martial arts promotion. Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Nov. 2023 Still, Uber sold off its self-driving unit two years later. WIRED, 9 Nov. 2023 The alternative is that no jobs get restored, and Yellow essentially gets scrapped and sold off for parts. Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 2 Nov. 2023 So his solution would be to have the guns appraised by a licensed dealer and sold off like any other marital assets in the couple's ongoing divorce. Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 16 Oct. 2023 Government bonds have sold off rapidly in recent months, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year bond around a percentage point higher since the beginning of July. WSJ, 6 Oct. 2023 As costs swelled, Mr. Dolan sold off some assets to help cover expenses and restructured his companies so that investor concerns about the Sphere didn’t harm Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s stock price. Katherine Rosman, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2023 The data also finds that over the past year, retail investors have sold off over $55.31 billion in stocks. Will Daniel, Fortune, 10 Nov. 2023 Those who spoke with the Times said that biometric data could be used by criminals for nefarious purposes, or private companies could sell off users’ data to profit from it. Tori Latham, Robb Report, 13 Oct. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sell-off.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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

Dictionary Entries Near sell-off

Cite this Entry

“Sell-off.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sell-off. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.

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