▪ I. auctioneer, n.
(ɔːkʃəˈnɪə(r))
[f. auction + -eer1. (Cf. med.L. auctiōnārius, auctiōnātor, one who increases the price, a regrater.)]
One who conducts sales by auction.
| 1708 in Kersey. 1762 Lond. Mag. XXXI. 296 An Auctioneer and a Fishmonger. 1841 Borrow Zincali I. iv. ii. 289 He had perhaps talked more than an auctioneer during a three days' sale. |
| attrib. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. III. x. i. 200 To describe this Crown-Prince Mansion..with auctioneer minuteness. |
▪ II. auctioˈneer, v.
[f. prec. n.]
To sell by auction. Hence auctioneering vbl. n.
| a 1733 North Lives (1826) III. 290 Mills, with his auctioneering, atlasses and projects, failed. 1785 Cowper Task iii. 756 Estates are landscapes, gazed upon awhile, Then advertised, and auctioneer'd away. 1880 Muirhead Gaius 456 Argentarius..combined auctioneering with banking. |