retail

From the Old French verb retaillier.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiˌteɪl/, [ˈɹiˌtʰeɪ̯ɫ]

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -eɪl

retail (uncountable)

1. (business) 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.

   She works in retail.

2. (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.

   I never pay retail for clothes.

• wholesale

• retailer
• retail park
• retail politics

• wholesale
• click and collect

retail (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to the (actual or figurative) sale of goods or services directly to individuals.
   • 1997 December 28, “Freddie Mac establishes existing-home sales division”, in Deseret News:

     "This is a very retail approach for us," Czerw said. "But when you buy one out of every six home loans in the US, you are going to have a constant flow ..."

   • 1999 December 12, Naedine Joy Hazell, “TRAVEL INSIDER; Airport Malls Redefine 'Shopping on the Fly'”, in Los Angeles Times:

     The future for Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Conn., also looks very retail. Plans call for $156 million to expand the main terminal,

   • 2010 September 17, “Sarah Palin's visit to Iowa keeps fans guessing”, in Des Moines Register:

     But even with her level of celebrity, it would be very hard to win a race without engaging voters in a very retail way.

retail

1. Direct to consumers, in retail quantities, or at retail prices.

   We've shut shown our reseller unit. We're only selling retail now.

retail (third-person singular simple present retails, present participle retailing, simple past and past participle retailed)

1. To sell at retail, or in small quantities directly to customers.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 223d.

     a half part of this purveying is carried on within the city and is called retailing.

2. (archaic) To sell secondhand, or in broken parts.
3. To repeat or circulate (news or rumours) to others.
   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 12, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 157:

     He retailed to them the curious interchange of phrases he had overheard on the journey from Aleppo.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 762:

     He became quite pale as he retailed these stories to Constance.

   • 1998 February 1, Alan Ryan, “Hot Spots (review of The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience by Michael Ignatieff)”, in The New York Times‎:

     The fantasies of blood libel that Bosnian Serbs retailed about Bosnian Muslims were the fantasies that Rhinelanders had centuries earlier retailed about the Jews they had murdered.

• Altier, airtel, aliter, iteral, lirate, retial, tailer

retail m (uncountable)

1. retail