Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SELL, v.t. [pret. and pp. sold. Sax. selan, sellan, sylan or syllan, to give, grant, yield, assign or sell; syllan to bote, to give in compensation, to give to boot; Sw. sälia; Ice. selia; Dan. sælger; Basque, saldu. The primary sense is to deliver, send or transfer, or to put off. The sense of sell, as we now understand the word, is wholly derivative; as we see by the Saxon phrases, syllan to agenne, to give for one's own; syllan to gyfe, to bestow for a gift, to bestow or confer gratis.]

1. To transfer property or the exclusive right of possession to another for an equivalent in money. It is correlative to buy, as one party buys what the other sells. It is distinguished from exchange or barter, in which one commodity is given for another; whereas in selling the consideration is money, or its representative in current notes. To this distinction there may be exceptions. “Esau sold his birth-right to Jacob for a mess of pottage.” But this is unusual. “Let us sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites … and they sold him for twenty pieces of silver.” – Gen. xxxvii. Among the Hebrews, parents had power to sell their children.
2. To betray; to deliver or surrender for money or a reward; as, to sell one's country.
3. To yield or give for a consideration. The troops fought like lions, and sold their lives dearly; that is, they yielded their lives, but first destroyed many, which made it a dear purchase for their enemies.
4. In Scripture, to give up to be harassed and made slaves. He sold them into the hands of their enemies. – Judges ii.
5. To part with; to renounce or forsake. Buy the truth and sell it not. – Prov. xxiii. To sell one's self to do evil, to give up one's self to be the slave of sin, and to work wickedness without restraint. – 1 Kings xxi. 2 Kings vii.