Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The sale of goods or commodities in small quantities directly to consumers.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or engaged in the sale of goods or commodities at retail.
  • adverb In retail quantities.
  • adverb At a retail price.
  • intransitive verb To sell in small quantities directly to consumers.
  • intransitive verb To tell or repeat (gossip or stories, for example) to others.
  • intransitive verb To sell at retail.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Retaliation.
  • noun The sale of commodities in small quantities or parcels, or at second hand; a dealing out in small portions: opposed to wholesale.
  • noun in small quantities; a little at a time, as in the sale of merchandise.
  • Of or pertaining to sale at retail; concerned with sale at retail: as, retail trade; a retail dealer.
  • To sell in small quantities or parcels.
  • To sell at second hand.
  • To deal out in small quantities; tell in broken parts; tell to many; tell again; hand down by report: as, to retail slander or idle reports.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Done at retail; engaged in retailing commodities; as a retail trade; a retail grocer.
  • noun The sale of commodities in small quantities or parcels; -- opposed to wholesale; sometimes, the sale of commodities at second hand.
  • transitive verb To sell in small quantities, as by the single yard, pound, gallon, etc.; to sell directly to the consumer.
  • transitive verb Obs. or R. To sell at second hand.
  • transitive verb To distribute in small portions or at second hand; to tell again or to many (what has been told or done); to report.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The sale of goods directly to the consumer; encompassing the storefronts, mail-order, websites, etc., and the corporate mechanisms, branding, advertising, etc. that support them, which are involved in the business of selling and point-of-sale marketing retail goods to the public.
  • noun colloquial Retail price; full price; an abbreviated expression, meaning the full suggested price of a particular good or service, before any sale, discount, or other deal.
  • adjective Of, or relating to the (actual or figurative) sale of goods or services directly to individuals.
  • adverb Direct to consumers, in retail quantities, or at retail prices.
  • verb To sell at retail, or in small quantities directly to customers.
  • verb To repeat or circulate (news or rumours) to others.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the selling of goods to consumers; usually in small quantities and not for resale
  • adverb at a retail price
  • verb sell on the retail market
  • verb be sold at the retail level

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, variant of Old French, piece cut off, from retaillier, to cut up : re-, re- + tailler, to cut; see tailor.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Old French verb retaillier.

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