[f. BID v.1 3.] The offer of a price, the amount offered; spec. at an auction.
1788. T. Jefferson, Corr. (1830), 342. He … thought to obtain a high bid by saying he was called for in America.
1837. Penny Mag., 1 April, 124. The salesman rapidly naming a lower price until he gets a bid.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xii. 101. Half-a-dozen bids simultaneously met the ear of the auctioneer.
fig. 1858. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., II. lxxvii. 31. This time it will be a ‘bid’ between two opposite political parties.
