Meaning & use
auction house
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Meanings
nouncountable
A company that sells goods for people by holding public sales where buyers bid.
Grammar: Countable; the plural is 'auction houses', and you can say 'at an auction house'.
Patterns
- at an auction house
- an auction house sells something
- take something to an auction house
She took the old painting to an auction house to find out its value.
The auction house holds a major sale of Asian art every spring.
Buyers from several countries registered with the auction house before the bidding began.
nouncountable
The building or rooms where such a company holds its sales.
Grammar: Countable; often used with 'at' or 'in': the sale was held at the auction house.
Patterns
- the sale at the auction house
- go to the auction house
The auction house was packed with dealers hoping for a bargain.
We arrived at the auction house early to look at the lots.
Word forms
| plural | auction houses |
|---|
Common combinations
- a leading auction house
- A leading auction house handled the sale of the collection.
- hold an auction
- The charity will hold an auction in the town hall next month.
- put something up for auction
- They put the silver teapot up for auction last year.
- an auction house catalogue
- The painting appears in the auction house catalogue as lot 42.
- sell something at auction
- The farm was sold at auction for more than expected.
Synonyms and how they differ
- auctioneer
- An auctioneer is the person who runs the sale and calls for bids, not the company or building.
- saleroom
- A saleroom is the room where goods are sold, often used in British English; an auction house can mean the whole business.
- dealer
- A dealer buys and sells goods directly, while an auction house sells on behalf of owners through public bidding.
Word family
- auction noun
- A public sale in which goods go to the highest bidder.
- auction verb
- To sell something at a public sale to the highest bidder.
- auctioneer noun
- The person who conducts an auction and accepts bids.
Commonly confused: auction house or auction?
auction house vs auction
'Auction' is the event or the method of selling; 'auction house' is the company or place that runs such sales.
Practice
They decided to sell the antique clock ___ a well-known auction house.
Choose one answer.
We use 'at' for the place or company where a sale happens, so 'at a well-known auction house' fits. 'On' is wrong for a company, and 'to' would suggest giving it away rather than selling it there.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “auction house”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.