Meaning & use
bidding war
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Meaning
nouncountable
A situation where two or more people or companies compete by offering increasingly higher amounts of money for something.
Grammar: Countable; used with 'a' or in the plural. Often followed by 'for' and the thing being bought.
Patterns
- a bidding war for something
- a bidding war between someone
- a bidding war over something
The two companies got into a bidding war for the small tech startup.
A bidding war broke out among collectors for the rare painting.
Word forms
| plural | bidding wars |
|---|
Common combinations
- enter a bidding war
- They decided not to enter a bidding war for the house.
- win a bidding war
- She won a bidding war for the apartment by offering cash.
- spark a bidding war
- The low starting price sparked a bidding war among investors.
- bidding war over something
- There was a bidding war over the last available tickets.
Synonyms and how they differ
- auction
- An auction is the event where items are sold to the highest bidder; a bidding war is the intense competition itself, often within an auction.
- bidding contest
- A less common phrase that emphasizes the contest aspect rather than the escalating offers.
Word family
Commonly confused: bidding war or bidding?
bidding war vs bidding
Bidding is the general process of making offers; a bidding war is a specific intense competition with rising offers.
Practice
The two collectors were in a ______ for the antique vase, each raising their offer.
Choose one answer.
A bidding war is the fixed phrase for a situation where people compete by increasing their offers. The other options are not natural English collocations.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bidding war”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.