Definition for AUC'TION

AUC'TION, n. [L. auctio, a public sale; Eng. to hawk; G. höken; properly, to cry out. See Hawk.]

  1. A public sale of property to the highest bidder, and regularly, by a person licensed and authorized for the purpose; a vendue. Contracts for services, sometimes, are sold to the lowest bidder. By the Romans, this species of sale was made by a crier, sub hasta, under a spear stuck in the earth.
  2. The thing sold at auction. – Pope.

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