What's the difference between auction and sell?

Auction


Definition:

  • (n.) A public sale of property to the highest bidder, esp. by a person licensed and authorized for the purpose; a vendue.
  • (n.) The things sold by auction or put up to auction.
  • (v. t.) To sell by auction.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We’re learning to store peak power in all kinds of ways: a California auction for new power supply was won by a company that uses extra solar energy to freeze ice, which then melts during the day to supply power.
  • (2) The small print revealed that Osborne claimed a fall in borrowing largely by factoring in the proceeds of a 4G telecomms auction that has not yet happened.
  • (3) The four other works were sold at auction at Christie's and disappeared into private collections.
  • (4) When I moved house a little while ago, a friend suggested using another service in the sharing economy – the delivery auction website, AnyVan .
  • (5) Volatility on European markets was "mainly driven by Portugal's disappointing bond auction", said Gavan Nolan, an analyst at Markit.
  • (6) Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, has promised to reform the auction scheme but one of her ministers, Andrea Leadsom, welcomed this year’s awards, arguing they reduced costs for homeowners.
  • (7) The biggest loser could be the state-owned oil company Rosneft, which bought Yukos assets in auctions when the latter's stock was almost worthless.
  • (8) But the Wu-Tang leader went on to speak about it anyhow: “[The album has] been handed over to an auction house, and they plan on doing something,” he said.
  • (9) The 4Growth report calls on government to reinvest the £4bn proceeds from the auction of 4G telecoms licences back into science and technology.
  • (10) Serum C concentrations of the calves (n = 100 x 4 years) were evaluated on their farm of origin, on arrival at an auction market, on arrival at a feedyard, and during their first 4 weeks in the feedyard.
  • (11) The annual capacity market auction – under which power suppliers bid for contracts to feed electricity into the grid – is due to begin on Tuesday.
  • (12) The original version wrongly stated that Madrid had to pay 5.7% at a debt auction to borrow €2.4bn for 12 months, rather than 5.07%.
  • (13) It was described as one of the artist's masterpieces by David Moore-Gwyn, deputy chairman in the UK of Sotheby's, which will auction the painting in December.
  • (14) However, the most spectacular fundraiser was not the auction room but a wedding, when the ninth duke married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, securing a gigantic dowry, a fortune in shares and an annual allowance.
  • (15) A week after the Tories raised £160,000 by selling a game of tennis with David Cameron and Boris Johnson , the Labour party will on Wednesday be auctioning a five-a-side football match against the "shadow cabinet all-stars".
  • (16) The report said Isis had begun holding online slave auctions with an encrypted application to circulate photos of captured Yazidi women and girls.
  • (17) Another option could be to partner with BSkyB, which is desperate to see off direct rival BT in the next football rights auction, with whom Discovery already has a strong commercial relationship.
  • (18) Maria Miller wanted to launch the debate about BBC charter renewal herself, thus guaranteeing that the future of the BBC would become part of a political auction.
  • (19) There has been a spate of thefts of rhino horns and elephant tusks from European museums, zoos and auction houses in recent years, amid a rising illegal trade in poached or stolen ivory .
  • (20) As Yannis Koutsomitis notes, the Spanish in particular, probably have the ECB to thank for its successful auctions.

Sell


Definition:

  • (n.) Self.
  • (n.) A sill.
  • (n.) A cell; a house.
  • (n.) A saddle for a horse.
  • (n.) A throne or lofty seat.
  • (v. t.) To transfer to another for an equivalent; to give up for a valuable consideration; to dispose of in return for something, especially for money.
  • (v. t.) To make a matter of bargain and sale of; to accept a price or reward for, as for a breach of duty, trust, or the like; to betray.
  • (v. t.) To impose upon; to trick; to deceive; to make a fool of; to cheat.
  • (v. i.) To practice selling commodities.
  • (v. i.) To be sold; as, corn sells at a good price.
  • (n.) An imposition; a cheat; a hoax.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Several selling VCs were also Google investors; one sat on Google's board.
  • (2) No one has jobs,” said Annie, 45, who runs a street stall selling fried chicken and rice in the Matongi neighbourhood.
  • (3) A failure to reach a solution would potentially leave 200,000 homes without affordable cover, leaving owners unable to sell their properties and potentially exposing them to financial hardship.
  • (4) If Clegg's concerns do broadly accord with Cameron's, how will the PM sell such a big U-turn to his increasingly anti-Clegg backbenchers?
  • (5) After two placings of shares with institutional investors which began two years ago, the government has been selling shares by “dribbling” them into the market.
  • (6) Meanwhile, Brighton rock duo Royal Blood top this week's album chart with their self-titled album, scoring the UK's fastest selling British rock debut in three years.
  • (7) The group set aside £3.2bn to cover PPI mis-selling in 2011.
  • (8) Even so, the release of the first-half figures could help clear the way for the chancellor, George Osborne, to start selling off the taxpayer’s 79% stake in the bank, a legacy of the institution’s 2008 bailout.
  • (9) It’s not like there’s a simple answer.” Vassilopoulos said: “The media is all about entertainment.” “I don’t think they sell too many papers or get too many advertisements because of their coverage of income inequality,” said Calvert.
  • (10) Giving voice to that sentiment the mass-selling daily newspaper Ta Nea dedicated its front-page editorial to what it hoped would soon be the group's demise, describing Alexopoulos' desertion as a "positive development".
  • (11) And we will sell those assets that can be managed better by the private sector.
  • (12) At the same time, however, he has backed the quality of the technology that the company is developing and resisted pressure to sell off underperforming businesses.
  • (13) In Wednesday’s budget speech , George Osborne acknowledged there had been a big rise in overseas suppliers storing goods in Britain and selling them online without paying VAT.
  • (14) Apple could quite possibly afford to promise to pay out 80% of its streaming iTunes income, especially if such a service helped it sell more iPhones and iPads, where the margins are bigger.
  • (15) It acts as a one-stop shop bringing together credit unions and other organisations, such as Five Lamps , a charity providing loans, and white-goods providers willing to sell products with low-interest repayments.
  • (16) For an industry built on selling ersatz rebellion to teenagers, finding the moral high ground was always going to be tricky.
  • (17) The newspaper is the brainchild of Jaime Villalobos, who saw homeless people selling The Big Issue while he was studying natural resource management in Newcastle.
  • (18) She knew that Ford needed parts for the best-selling truck in America, and she knew how to make them.
  • (19) Japan needs to sell whale meat at a competitive price, similar to that of pork or chicken, and to do that it needs to increase its annual catch."
  • (20) Rawlins bought a stake in Stoke City in 2000, where he'd been a season ticket-holder from the age of five, after selling off his IT consultancy company and joined the board.