auction block
- Also called block. a platform from which an auctioneer sells: the old courthouse where slaves were sold from the auction block.
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- put on the auction block, to offer for sale at auction; offer to sell to the highest bidder.Also put on the block.
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Origin of auction block
An Americanism dating back to 1840–50
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for auction block
Historical Examples
Nothing that he could do would be able to save them from the auction-block.
Slavery and the ConstitutionWilliam Ingersoll Bowditch
A slave Kwaque was, as much as if Daughtry had bought him on the auction-block.
Michael, Brother of JerryJack London
It was the auction-block horror that first prompted him to seek freedom.
The Underground RailroadWilliam Still
My wife and children, dearer to me than my heart's blood, were they made for the auction-block?
The Underground RailroadWilliam Still
When the hour arrived, the doomed man was placed on the auction-block.
The Underground RailroadWilliam Still