auctioneer
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
auctioneers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
auctioneered,
past participle, past
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auctioneering
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
auctioneersimple
-
auctioneerssimple
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have auctioneeredperfect
-
has auctioneeredperfect
-
am auctioneeringprogressive
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are auctioneeringprogressive
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is auctioneeringprogressive
-
have been auctioneeringperfect progressive
-
has been auctioneeringperfect progressive
Past
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auctioneeredsimple
-
had auctioneeredperfect
-
was auctioneeringprogressive
-
were auctioneeringprogressive
-
had been auctioneeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of auctioneer
Explanation
An auctioneer is a person who manages an auction, or a public sale at which people can bid on items. It's exciting to win the bidding at an auction and hear the auctioneer shout, "Sold!" It's the job of an auctioneer to organize the goods for sale at an auction, as well as to oversee the bidding, often encouraging bidders to compete with each other to drive the price up. Some auctioneers call out items and prices in a distinctive, rapid, sing-song voice. Auctioneer comes from auction, which has a Latin root: auctionem, "increasing sale or public sale," from augere, "to increase."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mari’s portfolio already includes the Miami Open tennis tournament, the Frieze art fair and collector-car auctioneer Barrett-Jackson.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Off screen, she worked as a specialist and auctioneer at Lyon & Turnbull, the oldest auction house in Scotland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Ann Thorpe, an auctioneer at Dartmoor Auctions, said "I think you do sometimes get ironic buys. Things like people's secret Santa presents and that kind of thing."
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
The auction is rigged not for the buyer or the seller but for the auctioneer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
“Do I hear a million?” the auctioneer shouts.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
Their work enjoyed a revival around 2014, auctioneers said, and Bagpuss was voted the UK's all-time favourite children's television programme in 1999.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Bagpuss and his friends remained "rightly popular", auctioneers said, with a work showing the famous pink cat with Emily and Professor Yaffle selling for £1,600.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
It was previously predicted by auctioneers to raise up to £5,000.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
The lots, which also include the so-called Marauder's Map from the "Harry Potter" films, have a combined pre-sale estimate of $9 million, according to Propstore, the auctioneers staging the sale.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
Onlookers chewed fresh oysters and hot corn as the auctioneers shouted into the air.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
During the heady days of the dot-com bubble, McCormick was CEO of the internet auctioneering house FreeMarkets - amassing wealth as he steered the Pittsburgh-based company to a nearly $500 million acquisition deal in 2004.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 14, 2023
Into this narrative, “The Lost Leonardo” weaves coherent mini-treatises on restoration, art dealerships, free ports, the true nature of the auctioneering business and more.
From New York Times ● Aug. 12, 2021
Though he eschews the "homina-homina-homina" patter known in auctioneering as "the chant," the puckish Girardo entertains bids in all four languages from the auction floor, over the telephone and via the Internet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2015
Though he was the picture of fast-talking auctioneering bluster during the event, he says that he “had a rough night” after appraising each gun at the coroner’s office a few weeks ago.
From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2014
This amused the questioners and I had a large crowd in attendance, many of whom no doubt came to hear me in my first effort at auctioneering.
From Twenty Years of Hus'ling by W. W. (William Wallace) Denslow
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
