retail

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The selling of goods directly to ordinary customers.

   After leaving the bank, she found a job in retail.

2. 2
   adj

   Relating to selling goods directly to customers.

   The shoes are cheaper online than at the retail price.

3. 3
   verb

   To sell goods directly to customers in small quantities.

   The company retails its products through hundreds of small shops.

4. 4
   adv

   At the price charged to ordinary customers.

   I never pay retail for clothes; I always wait for the sales.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Retail came into late Middle English through an Anglo-Norman use of Old French retaille, “a piece cut off,” from tailler, “to cut.” The commercial sense arose from selling goods in small quantities, in contrast with wholesale trade in large quantities.

From the Old French verb retaillier.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary