sell up

sell up (third-person singular simple present sells up, present participle selling up, simple past and past participle sold up)

1. (intransitive) To sell one's business or other major asset (such as a home).

   Synonym: sell out

   Coordinate terms: close up, close down

2. (transitive, British) To sell all (of the assets of a company or person), in order to reduce its debts or gain liquid money.

   Synonym: sell out

   Coordinate term: sell off

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 9, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     […] he was never known to give away a shilling or to do a good action, but was of a pleasant, sly, laughing mood, and would cut his joke and drink his glass with a tenant and sell him up the next day […]

3. (marking) To upsell.
   • 2001, Montrose S. Sommers, James G. Barnes, Fundamentals of marketing, page 438:

     Attracting consumers with a low-priced feature item and then pointing out weaknesses in order to sell up to a more expensive […]

   • 2003, H. Eugene Weiss, Chrysler, Ford, Durant and Sloan, page 37:

     He was not going to have salesman ^[sic] sell up to a more expensive and more profitable car that was no better than his Ford.

• upsell