regrate
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to buy up (grain, provisions, etc.) in order to sell again at a profit in or near the same market.
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to sell again (commodities so bought); retail.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to buy up (commodities) in advance so as to raise their price for profitable resale
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to resell (commodities so purchased); retail
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building trades to redress the surface of (hewn stonework)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of regrate1
1400–50; late Middle English regraten < Old French regrater, perhaps equivalent to re- re- + grater to scrape ( see grate 2)
Origin of regrate2
1720–30; < French regratter, equivalent to re- re- + gratter to grate 2
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:
Fail me patience and stay for engrossing care * And sorrows my suffering soul regrate.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 08 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
The certantie understand, the said Maister George tooke his leave of Kyle, and that with the regrate of many.
From The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) by Laing, David
No one may forestall or regrate, that is, buy at one price and sell at a higher price in the same locale.
From Our Legal Heritage June 2011 (Sixth) Edition by Reilly, S. A.
And in the xvj day of March the kyng ordeyned that no man schulde gon ought of the citee of London be water no be londe to regrate ony Hoc Ao concessit civib’ Londo’.vitaile.
From A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483 Written in the Fifteenth Century, and for the First Time Printed from MSS. in the British Museum by Nicolas, Nicholas Harris, Sir
To regrate was to buy up in the market and sell again in the same market at an advanced price.
From The History of London by Besant, Walter, Sir
Fish, destruction of to enhance price made criminal in 1357; universally regrated in American markets; may not be carried out of England.
From Popular Law-making by Stimson, Frederic Jesup
Milk universally forestalled and regrated in American markets.
From Popular Law-making by Stimson, Frederic Jesup
We regrated that the prettiest machine of all was broken; wheir was to be sein wtin a little bounds above 300 spouts sending furth water and that in sundry formes.
From Publications of the Scottish History Society, Volume 36 Journals of Sir John Lauder Lord Fountainhall with His Observations on Public Affairs and Other Memoranda 1665-1676 by Fountainhall, John Lauder, Lord
Engrossing and the kindred practices of forestalling and regrating were early regarded as serious offences in restraint of trade, and were punishable both at common law and by statute.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various
They had, moreover, taken bribes for concealment of offences of forestalling and regrating.
From London and the Kingdom - Volume I by Sharpe, Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson)
As usual many other causes but the right one were put forth, and the old accusations of monopoly, forestalling, and regrating were heard again.
From A Short History of English Agriculture by Curtler, W. H. R. (William Henry Ricketts)
"Engrossing" is really the result of a successful forestalling, with or without regrating; that is to say, it is a complete "corner of the market"; from it our word "grocer" is derived.
From Popular Law-making by Stimson, Frederic Jesup
In the towns there was an outcry against corn merchants, who were guilty of forestalling and regrating.
From William Pitt and the Great War by Rose, John Holland
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.
