Meaning & use
sealed bid
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablebusiness
A confidential offer to buy something or perform a job, submitted in a closed envelope or system and opened only at a fixed time.
Grammar: Takes an or the: each company submitted a sealed bid.
Patterns
- submit a sealed bid
- a sealed bid for something
Each contractor must submit a sealed bid before noon on Friday.
The city accepted the lowest sealed bid for the bridge repairs.
The house will be sold by sealed bid rather than at auction.
Word forms
| plural | sealed bids |
|---|
Common combinations
- submit a sealed bid
- Companies have until June to submit a sealed bid.
- open sealed bids
- The committee will open the sealed bids on Monday.
- sealed bid auction
- A sealed bid auction keeps offers private.
- by sealed bid
- The land was sold by sealed bid.
- lowest sealed bid
- The lowest sealed bid won the contract.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tender
- Tender is the standard British word for a formal offer to supply goods or services, while sealed bid stresses that it is kept secret.
- proposal
- A proposal usually includes details of a plan and is not always confidential, whereas a sealed bid is mainly about the price offer.
- offer
- Offer is general and can be made openly, while a sealed bid is kept hidden until the deadline.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: sealed bid or sealed bid vs. open auction?
sealed bid vs sealed bid vs. open auction
In an open auction everyone hears the offers, while a sealed bid is secret until opened.
Practice
To keep the process fair, each firm sent a ___ that nobody could see until the deadline.
Choose one answer.
A sealed bid is a confidential offer opened at a set time. A public vote and verbal promise are open and informal, and a price list is not an offer.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sealed bid”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.