sb., a., adv.
I. 1. Orig. two words, WHOLE a. and SALE sb.2, in phr. by whole sale (also † by the or † in whole sale), now usually ellipt. as adv., qualifying sell, buy, or words of similar meaning: In large quantities, in gross (as opposed to by retail).
a. 1417. York Memorandum Bk. (Surtees), I. 183. To sell any girdeles by retaile or holesale.
1579. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, 41. Those men which sell by whole sale haue a quicker dispatch.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 53. If seates of iustice were to be solde for money, wee haue them amongst vs that would buy them vp by the whole sale.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 95. Great Merchants disdaine to sell, otherwise then by whole sale.
1731–2. Norwich Merc., 19–26 Feb., 3/2. William Steele … selleth the following Goods either by Wholesale or Retail.
1824. Southey, Sir T. More (1829), I. 135. Purchasing articles for the community in wholesale.
1866. Chamb. Encycl., VIII. 691/1. These pegged goods [sc. shoes] are disposed of wholesale in boxes.
1883. Law Times Rep., 9 Feb., 727/1. Inviting the public to come and buy, both wholesale and retail.
2. fig. (with construction as in 1). In a large way, in large numbers or amount, in abundance, profusely, extensively, indiscriminately.
1601. Sir W. Cornwallis, Ess., II. xxix. Q 7. We whose narrow roomes are not able to traffick with vertue by the whole-sale but by retayle.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VI. vi. 489. Africanus, from whose Store-house Eusebius tooke his Chronicle,… almost by wholesale.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, I. 330. St. Cyprian who was liberal by wholesale, bestowing all at once, a fair estate on God and the poor.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind, I. v. (1786), 108. They despise a valuable book, and … throw contempt upon it by wholesale.
1837. Blackw. Mag., XLII. 112. The wild Bashkirs … slaughtered them by wholesale.
1859. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, iii. 104. Homer never allows distinguished Greeks to fall wholesale by the Trojan sword.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq., IV. xx. 503. The Norman version makes him overthrow Welsh Kings by wholesale.
† 3. Sale in gross; fig. dealing in a large way or in big quantities; indiscriminate or unlimited disposal (opp. to retail). Obs.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 166. Take them out of their tracke, put them from their whole-sale, and turne them to retayle…. I will not giue a button for the best of them.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, i. § 6. To which his ταυτα παντα σοι δωσω all this will I give (could he make such a whole-sale) can bear no proportion.
1788. Picken, Poems, 57. Merchants shops, For halesale or retailin’.
II. attrib. or adj. 4. a. Selling a commodity by wholesale.
c. 1645. in Archaeologia, LII. 135. A hosver & whole saleman for narrow wares.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 64, ¶ 3. A wholesale Dealer in Silks and Ribbons.
1724. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit., I. 124. It being frequent for the London Wholesale Men to carry back Orders from their Dealers.
1773. Life N. Frowde, 5. Mr. John Neville, a Wholesale ironmonger.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., II. 22. The farmer at a distance from markets … may be compared … to a wholesale merchant.
1876. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 637. Drugs from the wholesale houses for country druggists.
b. Pertaining to sale in gross; used for a commodity sold by wholesale.
1724. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit., I. 130. When the great Hurry of Wholesale Business begins to be over.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iv. Pickles … in great wholesale jars.
1867. J. Laing, Theory of Business, ii. 15. The retail price of ‘13,’ we take to mean that shopkeepers received this amount of money for their stocks; and the wholesale price of ‘11,’ shows that they pay to warehousemen ‘2’ less than they received.
1896. L. I., Price Money, vi. 174. Greater friction prevails in the retail than in the wholesale market.
1902. Builder, 5 April, p. xix. Clerk and Traveller required for a Wholesale Country Business.
5. fig. Having an extensive application; unlimited or indiscriminate in range; doing something, or done, largely, profusely, or in great quantities.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. xvii. 116. But how long shall I be retailing out rules to this Merchant?… Take our Saviours whole-sale rule, Whatsoever ye would have men do unto you, do you unto them.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. iii. 809. Those whole-sale Criticks, that … cry down all Philosophy.
1838. Lytton, Leila, I. v. The Moors had treated this unhappy people with a wholesale and relentless barbarity.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, xlvii. Slaughtering lions in a wholesale way like rabbits.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, iii. I am by no means a wholesale admirer of our legal solemnities.
1843. Sir C. Scudamore, Med. Visit Gräfenberg, 27. It is a sort of wholesale theory, and equally serves for all persons, and for every known disorder.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. vii. 73. A wholesale creation of peers for the purpose of obtaining a majority.
1880. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Rebel of Family, xxii. ‘Would you go to the colonies with the man you loved?’… ‘I would go into the desert!’ she answered in her passionate wholesale way.
Hence Wholesale v. trans., to sell wholesale (in quot. intr. for pass.); Wholesalely adv., in a wholesale way, extensively, profusely; Wholesaler, one who sells goods wholesale (to retailers), a wholesale dealer; Wholesaleness, wholesale quality, profuseness, indiscriminateness.
1885. H. M. Newhall, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 289/1. English ladies’ shoes, *wholesaling at $1 50 per pair, cost of labor for making 25 cents.
1841. North Star, 28 May, 3/1. The most enthusiastic advocates of Harrison’s election, never thought of attributing to him those christian traits of character which, since his death, have been so *wholesalely lavished upon him.
1887. J. D. Hooker, in Life (1918), II. 295. The supposed facts … are wholesalely unreliable.
1892. Graphic, 24 Dec., 758/2. The very *wholesaleness of the present charges of corruption.
1857. Tooke & Newmarch, Hist. Prices, V. 375. Nor … is it necessary … that the whole quantity … should be in the hands, either of the *wholesalers or the retailers.
1888. E. Bellamy, Looking Backward, 146. The manufacturer sold to the wholesaler.
1907. Times, 2 Oct., 3/6. In the bakery trade in any transaction between the wholesaler and retailer the expression ‘bushel’ was not a measure of capacity, but a measure of weight.
