auctioneer
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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auctioneers,
present (3rd person singular)
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auctioneered,
past participle, past
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auctioneering
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
auctioneersimple
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auctioneerssimple
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have auctioneeredperfect
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has auctioneeredperfect
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am auctioneeringprogressive
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are auctioneeringprogressive
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is auctioneeringprogressive
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have been auctioneeringperfect progressive
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has been auctioneeringperfect progressive
Past
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auctioneeredsimple
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had auctioneeredperfect
-
was auctioneeringprogressive
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were auctioneeringprogressive
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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
Its buyer was the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri, and the seat is to go on exhibition, the auctioneer said.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
“What you’re looking for as an auctioneer is someone who’s truly fearless onstage,” says auctioneer Lydia Fenet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
Being an effective auctioneer, students are told, is about controlling cadence, pitch, projection and resonance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
“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
Best's medal was sold for £305,200 by auctioneers Bonhams in London after it had been offered by a private collector.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Leo Denham, managing director of Denhams auctioneers, said: "There has been a lot of interest from collectors in America and around the world."
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 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
If there was a mother and her children on the block, she would buy the whole lot, cutting a deal with the auctioneers before the family ever went up for bidding.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
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
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 Seattle Times ● Aug. 13, 2023
For one thing, she later said, she felt a spiritual void, and auctioneering “no longer felt correct.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2016
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
Those auctioneering fellows have fixed up everything, but it isn't my fault if they don't know how mean they are.
From The Mistress of Bonaventure by Harold Bindloss
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.
