garage sale

American

noun

a sale of used or unwanted household goods, personal items, bric-a-brac, etc., typically held in one's garage or yard.

garage sale British

noun

a sale of personal belongings or household effects held at a person's home, usually in the garage

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

garage sales

plural

Etymology

Origin of garage sale

An Americanism dating back to 1960–65

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.

I wrote to you earlier about hosting a garage sale.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 16, 2026

“They’re painting the whole sector with the same brush, and I think that’s been the opportunity to buy some of the winners at garage sale prices,” Ives says.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026

Chin began skating at age 8 after her mother, Marjorie, bought her a pair of skates at a garage sale.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 1, 2026

Having a garage sale isn’t going to stave off economic doom.

From Salon • Apr. 16, 2025

Because it might turn out that the fellow across the aisle was the guy you’d nearly blindsided at the freeway exit yesterday in order to beat him to a promising garage sale.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023