(~s, ~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is a place where goods are bought and sold, usually outdoors.
He sold boots on a ~ stall.
N-COUNT
2.
The ~ for a particular type of thing is the number of people who want to buy it, or the area of the world in which it is sold. (BUSINESS)
The foreign ~ was increasingly crucial.
...the Russian ~ for personal computers...
N-COUNT: usu sing, with supp, oft N for/in n
3.
The ~ refers to the total amount of a product that is sold each year, especially when you are talking about the competition between the companies who sell that product. (BUSINESS)
The two big companies control 72% of the ~.
N-SING: the N
4.
If you talk about a ~ economy, or the ~ price of something, you are referring to an economic system in which the prices of things depend on how many are available and how many people want to buy them, rather than prices being fixed by governments. (BUSINESS)
Their ultimate aim was a ~ economy for Hungary...
He must sell the house for the current ~ value.
...the ~ price of cocoa.
ADJ: ADJ n
5.
To ~ a product means to organize its sale, by deciding on its price, where it should be sold, and how it should be advertised. (BUSINESS)
...if you ~ed our music the way you ~ pop music...
...if a soap is ~ed as an anti-acne product.
VERB: V n, be V-ed as n
6.
The job ~ or the labour ~ refers to the people who are looking for work and the jobs available for them to do. (BUSINESS)
Every year, 250,000 people enter the job ~.
...the changes in the labour ~ during the 1980s.
N-SING: the n N
7.
The stock ~ is sometimes referred to as the ~. (BUSINESS)
The ~ collapsed last October.
N-SING: the N
8.
see also black ~ , ~ forces , open ~
9.
If you say that it is a buyer’s ~, you mean that it is a good time to buy a particular thing, because there is a lot of it available, so its price is low. If you say that it is a seller’s ~, you mean that very little of it is available, so its price is high. (BUSINESS)
Don’t be afraid to haggle: for the moment, it’s a buyer’s ~...
PHRASE: v-link PHR
10.
If you are in the ~ for something, you are interested in buying it.
If you’re in the ~ for a new radio, you’ll see that the latest models are very different.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR n
11.
If something is on the ~, it is available for people to buy. If it comes onto the ~, it becomes available for people to buy. (BUSINESS)
...putting more empty offices on the ~.
...new medicines that have just come onto the ~.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v
12.
If you price yourself out of the ~, you try to sell goods or services at a higher price than other people, with the result that no one buys them from you. (BUSINESS)
At ?150,000 for a season, he really is pricing himself out of the ~.
PHRASE: V inflects