vend
Americanverb (used with object)
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to sell as one's business or occupation, especially by peddling.
to vend flowers at a sidewalk stand.
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to give utterance to (opinions, ideas, etc.); publish.
verb (used without object)
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to engage in the sale of merchandise.
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to be disposed of by sale.
verb
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to sell or be sold
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to sell (goods) for a living
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rare (tr) to utter or publish (an opinion, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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venditionnoun
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revendverb (used with object)
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unvendableadjective
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unvendedadjective
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vendableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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vendsimple
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vendssimple
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have vendedperfect
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has vendedperfect
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am vendingprogressive
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are vendingprogressive
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is vendingprogressive
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have been vendingperfect progressive
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has been vendingperfect progressive
Past
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vendedsimple
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had vendedperfect
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was vendingprogressive
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were vendingprogressive
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had been vendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vend
1610–20; < Latin vendere to sell, contraction of vēnum (or vēnō ) dare to offer for sale; see venal
Explanation
When you vend, you sell something — for example, you might have a table at a crafts fair where you vend your line of hand-knit dog clothing. Typically, the verb vend is used when the seller is on the move in some way, setting up a stall in a street fair or hawking homemade cupcakes out of a minivan at high school football games. Another way to use vend is specifically "to sell something out of a machine," like the kind you put a dollar in and get a bag of chips in return. The Latin root is vendere, "to sell."
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:
“Every single day that a vendor can’t vend legally ... that’s my enemy. It keeps me up at night.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
Some vend out of necessity, to pay bills and care for their children.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 7, 2023
Indigenous hop pickers also took the opportunity to vend their own goods to local Seattleites.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 16, 2022
With no houses to clean, no motorcycle taxis to drive and no markets to vend their wares, many face eviction and starvation.
From Time ● Apr. 7, 2020
“I believe that they vend foot- long hot dogs.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Walter vends its own beer, specially brewed for the venue in the village of Gijzegem.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 27, 2020
He vends excellent objects d'art undismayed before gargantuan plutocrats, penetrating their purses vastly, simply with the device of perfumed cigarettes, voluptuous oriental divans, scientific lighting, cutaway coat, and hauteur.
From Time Magazine Archive
The reading matter that he vends is stuff that an easygoing, careless public will not hasten to put aside voluntarily.
From Time Magazine Archive
October 8th.—Suppose you sent us some of the catalogues of the parties what vends statutes?
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) by Lang, Andrew
This is the period during which he becomes a willing, almost eager, mark for the decayed sport who purveys bad champagne and vends his own brand of noxious cigarettes.
From The "Goldfish" by Train, Arthur Cheney
Tokens are required at the bar, annoyingly vended by machines.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 27, 2020
A snack bar vended an array of imported soft drinks, including a range of Coca-Cola products with Vietnamese packaging.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2019
GET'EM TO GO Videotapes do not come in six-packs�not yet, anyway�but a New York City-based company called MovieMat is going to fix it so they can be vended right out of a machine.
From Time Magazine Archive
Each diocese has its local sheet, usually vended near the church on Sunday.
From Time Magazine Archive
Good pastry is vended In Cité Fadette,— Madame Pons constructs splendid Brioche and galette!
From A Selection from the Works of Frederick Locker by Locker-Lampson, Hannah Jane
One reader uses an insulated lunch bag with reusable ice packs, along with sodas, so she doesn’t have to pay vending machine prices.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
Shannon Camacho, senior policy associate at Inclusive Action for the City, said that Riverside needs to commit to improving its sidewalk vending ordinance and code enforcement protocols.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
Street vending is "the tradition of people in Hanoi".
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
Not just at work—writing emails, doing research, testing AI vending machines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
At lunch, Chris and I head to our table near the vending machines.
From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
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.
