wholesale

noun

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whole·sale | \ ˈhōl-ˌsāl

Definition of wholesale

(Entry 1 of 4)

: the sale of commodities in quantity usually for resale (as by a retail merchant)

wholesale

adjective

Definition of wholesale (Entry 2 of 4)

1 : performed or existing on a large scale especially without discrimination wholesale slaughter

2 : of, relating to, or engaged in the sale of commodities in quantity for resale a wholesale grocer

wholesale

adverb

Definition of wholesale (Entry 3 of 4)

: in a wholesale manner

wholesale

verb

wholesaled; wholesaling

Definition of wholesale (Entry 4 of 4)

transitive verb

: to sell (something) in quantity usually for resale

intransitive verb

: to sell in quantity usually for resale

Examples of wholesale in a Sentence

Adjective The crops originated from wholesale growers. Is that price retail or wholesale? Verb The company wholesales clothing to boutiques in the area.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Allbirds is part of the boom in direct-to-consumer brands that act as maker and retailer, avoiding the low margins of selling wholesale. — Matt Townsend, Fortune, "How much is Allbirds really worth?," 19 Feb. 2021 While the house was undergoing a wholesale refitting, Mildred Bliss needed to find a landscape designer for the garden. — Adrian Higgins, Washington Post, "A century ago, landscape design was a man’s world. But these women created a garden for the ages.," 7 Apr. 2021 For Russell, building Equator over the last 26 years primarily in wholesale led to the opening of 8 retail stores over the last 8 years to diversify their revenue streams. — Tai Tran, Forbes, "Belongingness, Humility, And Heart, The Ingredients To Brew Up Equator Coffees," 17 Mar. 2021 And some decision had to be made on my end about expanding into wholesale. — Adam Tschorn, Los Angeles Times, "Russell Westbrook’s style vision is expansive. ‘Honor the Gift’ is just the beginning," 17 Mar. 2021 Of 32 countries in the analysis, only two—Bulgaria and Luxembourg—have adopted the European Code wholesale, the authors reported last month in Bioethics. — Cathleen O’grady, Science | AAAS, "What is research misconduct? European countries can’t agree," 10 Mar. 2021 At Grove 45, the two added a direct-to-consumer avenue in addition to wholesale, and pivoted to recyclable bottles and organic farming. — Flora Tsapovksy, San Francisco Chronicle, "An ambitious new crop of California olive oil artisans is going all-in on creative, flavorful versions," 7 Mar. 2021 Further, the wholesale, cards and payments, and consumer banking segments together generated around 81% of the bank revenues in 2019, which implies that the bank is heavily dependent on the three segments. — Trefis Team, Forbes, "At $53, U.S. Bancorp Stock Is Costly," 26 Feb. 2021 This has caused crop loss throughout the season, and the market channels—restaurant wholesale and farmers markets—were rapidly shifting due to the pandemic. — Bon Appétit, "I Hope We All Survive This Year and I'm Still Farming by the End of It," 24 Feb. 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective There are the big generalists — including eBay, Amazon and wholesale site B-Stock — and a wealth of specialized online marketplaces for books, vintage clothing, jewelry and other things. — Ronald D. White Los Angeles Times, Star Tribune, "How to get started reselling common products on eBay and other sites," 1 May 2021 The author deftly shifts between Napoleon’s military conquests and his wholesale art thefts, not to mention his less-than-successful campaign to hold the attention of his recent bride, Josephine. — Roger Lowenstein, WSJ, "‘Plunder’ Review: Stealing Beauty," 30 Apr. 2021 The Taliban are set to reclaim some power in Afghanistan – if not orchestrate their own wholesale military takeover – as remaining U.S. forces prepare to withdraw and end America’s longest war by Sept. 11. — Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, "Afghanistan has changed. What if exiled Taliban have not?," 28 Apr. 2021 In November, EBay launched a partnership with wholesale liquidator Bulq that lets resellers tap into items customers returned to Target and other big retailers. — Los Angeles Times, "How to get started reselling common products on EBay and other sites," 28 Apr. 2021 Most compelling is the matter-of-fact answers and approach of Windle to the complete reinvention of a brand, and the very nearly wholesale adoption of a completely new and different means of propulsion. — Mark Ewing, Forbes, "Lotus Goes Electric, Lotus Goes Global, All Funded By China’s Geely," 27 Apr. 2021 The wholesale bakery, which is not open to the public, remains at the same address. — Sarah Blaskovich, Dallas News, "Empire Baking opens second bread shop, this one in East Dallas," 27 Apr. 2021 Rare Plant Research, the Oregon City wholesale nursery that opens its greenhouse doors just a few times each year to the public, is now accepting reservations for those who want to attend its open nursery and garden event May 9 or May 16. — oregonlive, "Here’s your chance to visit Rare Plant Research in Oregon City," 27 Apr. 2021 This is a wholesale redefinition of corporate leadership, which for decades has focused on shareholder return. — Edward Felsenthal, Time, "Every Company is a Tech Company Now. The Disruption is Just Beginning," 27 Apr. 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb Nearly all of its business comes from selling wholesale to stores in Washington and more than a dozen states, plus sales from area pop-up markets. — Washington Post, "These irreverent greeting cards are written by people who’ve experienced homelessness," 28 Sep. 2020 Other writers started wholesale in a digital world, like the staff of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. — Nathan Mattise, Ars Technica, "TV writers, like all of us, are developing a love-hate relationship with Zoom," 21 June 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and served in the infantry at Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) before returning to Greensburg with an honorable discharge in 1955, joining the family retail and wholesaling businesses. — Akeem Glaspie, Indianapolis Star, "Robert Rust, who had COVID-19, dedicated his life to family, community and faith," 6 May 2020 But on Wednesday, the ship nevertheless began disgorging passengers wholesale. — New York Times, "Hundreds Released From Diamond Princess Cruise Ship in Japan," 10 Mar. 2020 Fiat Chrysler and its peers are expected to lose tens of billions of dollars by idling their plants for weeks because they book revenue by wholesaling vehicles to their dealers. — Gabrielle Coppola, Bloomberg.com, "Fiat Charts Path to Plants Reopening Against Uncertain Backdrop," 28 Apr. 2020 Illinois also could soon join the list, as Chicago wholesale gasoline sold at a record-low 20 cents Monday morning, Bloomberg data show. — Fortune, "‘Can’t even give it away:’ Gasoline drops below $1 a gallon as U.S. economy locks down," 24 Mar. 2020 Cactus Corn plans to launch an e-commerce site this week, as well as wholesaling their products to local stores, Levandowski said. — Katherine Fitzgerald, azcentral, "Phoenix-area food trucks are embracing creativity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's how," 31 Mar. 2020 The company is also transitioning some locations to wholesale food operations to help the public find groceries. — Alexandria Burris, Indianapolis Star, "Indiana restaurants are closed for the rest of the month. Here's how they're adjusting.," 16 Mar. 2020 Liquor wholesales are prohibited by state law from selling to retailers on the list. — Patrick Danner, ExpressNews.com, "Gabriel’s Liquor alleges state is blocking deal with Walmart," 14 Feb. 2020 What's more, Hill City will test the waters of wholesaling some pieces to other retailers to grow the brand—something Gap Inc. hasn't done for any of its other brands, including Banana Republic and The Gap. — Phil Wahba, Fortune, "Gap Inc.’s Hill City Set to Pop Up Offline into Physical Retail," 1 Oct. 2019

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