sales
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of sales
First recorded in 1820–30, for the adjective
Explanation
When a company’s sales are down, it hasn’t been making money. The word sales refers to income. If a bathing suit company’s sales are low, it should stop making wool bikinis. Sales is also the plural of “sale.” If a jewelry maker is worried about sales during the year's slow months, he might offer a discount. And when a big company focuses too much on sales, they sometimes lose track of the other aspects of doing business. Stores have big sales. The job or activity of selling things is also known as sales, so you could have a sales job, or even a title like "Director of Sales" or "sales representative."
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.
That is with the CEO’s permission, with the designer’s permission, and with the head of sales’ permission, because I wanted this to be a partnership with the brands.
From The Verge • Jul. 26, 2022
The so-called Carbon Cowboys are the subject of a new 10-part documentary series detailing the farming technique known as regenerative grazing, which seemingly is saving them from a sales' drought.
From Fox News • May 15, 2020
There is also the problem of Internet sales’ cannibalizing in-store purchases.
From New York Times • Oct. 22, 2015
It was the day that Bob Perkins and Larry Reeves launched the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals with a press release from Minneapolis, Minnesota, dedicated exclusively to advancing the inside sales’ profession:
From Forbes • Mar. 28, 2014
"Maybe now that their sales' resistance is broken, we can switch to some of the other stuff," Tang Ya, torn away from his beloved communicators for the conference, said wistfully.
From Plague Ship by Norton, Andre
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.
