wholesale

noun

1. 1

   The sale of products, often in large quantities, to retailers or other merchants.

adjective

1. 1

   Of or relating to sale in large quantities, for resale.

2. 2

   figurativeExtensive, indiscriminate, all-encompassing; blanket.

   The bombing resulted in wholesale destruction.

   But beyond these cut-offs, to avoid the wholesale alteration of all mileposting and mileages—of bridges and culverts, for example—the original mileposts have remained unaltered.

   By wholesale omission of connections and by the use of a microscopic scale of photographic reproduction which makes some of the most important tables difficult to read, the size has been cut down from last winter's 580 to 520 pages only.

   With financial losses emerging in 1957, the BTC abandoned the diesel pilot scheme in favour of wholesale orders for untried designs.

adverb

1. 1

   In bulk or large quantity.

2. 2

   figurativeIndiscriminately.

   It still feels unnerving to some, even those caught in the crossfire, to see injuries invented wholesale and lies accepted by the highest court in the land.

verb

1. 1

   To sell at wholesale.

Forms

plural

wholesales

comparative

more wholesale

superlative

most wholesale

past tense

wholesaled

past participle

wholesaled

present participle

wholesaling

third person singular

wholesales