auction
Americannoun
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Also called public sale. a publicly held sale at which property or goods are sold to the highest bidder.
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Cards.
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(in bridge or certain other games) the competitive bidding to fix a contract that a player or players undertake to fulfill.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a public sale of goods or property, esp one in which prospective purchasers bid against each other until the highest price is reached Compare Dutch auction
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the competitive calls made in bridge and other games before play begins, undertaking to win a given number of tricks if a certain suit is trumps
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See auction bridge
verb
Other Word Forms
- auctionable adjective
- auctionary adjective
- proauction adjective
- unauctioned adjective
Etymology
Origin of auction
1585–95; < Latin auctiōn- (stem of auctiō ) an increase, especially in the bidding at a sale, equivalent to auct ( us ) increased, past participle of augēre ( aug- increase + -tus past participle suffix) + -iōn- -ion
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.
The guitar sold to an unnamed buyer after 21 minutes of bidding, as part of a rock memorabilia auction in New York on Thursday.
From BBC
Spain will hold an auction on Thursday while France will hold two bond sales on the same day, one for short- and medium-term nominal bonds and the other for inflation-linked bonds.
The auctions, which began on Wednesday for the women's tournament, are the first auctions held in a major British sport.
From BBC
Earlier this month, the central bank suspended weekly repo auctions and launched a new lira-settled foreign exchange forwards facility to stem the fall in the lira.
Italian and Irish government bond auctions will round off this week’s bond supply in the eurozone on Thursday.
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.
