A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

sell-out • selling out
sell-out—
1
. mass sale of a commodity: The shortage of shop-
ping times for working people causes overcrowding, poor serv-
ice and sell-outs on Saturday. 2. a show for which all seats are
sold: I have four tickets…. They’re absolutely impossible to
get, show is a sell-out, but the agent is a friend of mine. 3. a
sacrifice of principles, especially in order to gain an advantage:
This meeting was just another sell-out to the management. 4.
a person who makes a betrayal of principles: Mr. Mugabe’s
guerrillas infiltrated the region murdering those who were con-
sidered sell-outs.
selling out—
1
. disposition of the whole of one’s stock, etc.
by sale: The selling out of an edition in so short a time was
without precedence. 2. = sell-out 3: His best friends were now
accusing him of selling out.
sell someone down the river • send someone down
the river
sell someone down the river —(coll.) let a person down; betray
smb.: It’s my considered opinion, John, we’ve been sold down
the river.
send someone down the river —(coll., also: send someone down)
send a person to prison: He had overheard Miss Jones threat-
ening Mr. Dee “to send him down the river for life.”
See also: row someone up Salt River / send someone up the
river.
sell someone up • upsell someone
sell someone up —dispose of the goods of an insolvent person
for the benefit of his creditors: He is well behind in his repay-
ments to the bank, which is threatening to sell him up.
upsell someone —persuade a customer to buy smth. addi-
tional or a more expensive product: For customers, it unfor-
tunately means that salespeople may try to “upsell” you on
products and services that you don’t really need.
sell something off • sell something out
sell something off —sell goods cheaply (so as to raise money
quickly, etc.): The first “diners” were old Pullman dining cars
sold off by railway companies.
sell something out—
1
. sell the whole supply of smth.: Within
twenty days the entire stock of radio sets was sold out. 2. (also:
sell something up) dispose of one’s business or property (for
payment of debt, etc.): The property had to be sold out due
to the mere 
1
0 percent return it was getting per year. 3. treach-
erously betray smth.: Public interests were sold out for personal
and private profit.