hawk

to sell goods aggressively

TRANSLATION

1. verkaufen; hausieren, hausieren gehen 2. der Falke; der Habicht

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

Irving Berlin understood the value of hard-earned money from early on. HAWKING papers on a downtown pier in 1901, the 13-year-old had just sold his fifth copy of the New York Evening Journal when a loading crane swung into his path, knocking him into the East River.

Fished out just in time, he was given artificial respiration and packed off to Gouverneur Hospital for further treatment. An hour later, as the young boy slept, a nurse opened his clenched hand. In it: five copper coins. He remained tight-fisted for the rest of his 101 years.

Berlin, Irving (1888-1989) Russian-born American songwriter and composer - noted for his more than 1,500 songs, among them "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911), and for his scores for such musical comedies as Top Hat (1935) and Annie Get Your Gun (1946)

Did you
know?

to hawk

To peddle goods aggressively, especially by calling out.

From Middle English hauken, back-formation from hauker.

Source: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Hawk is one of many English synonyms for the verb "sell":

advertise, auction, bargain, barter, close, contract, deal in, dispose, drum, dump, exchange, flog, handle, hard sell, hawk, hit on, hustle, market, merchandise, move, peddle, persuade, pitch, plug, push, put across, retail, soft sell, soft soap, spiel, sweet talk, trade, traffic, unload, vend, wholesale

More Word Quizzes: