Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To offer or propose (an amount) as a price.
  • intransitive verb To auction (a contract).
  • intransitive verb To offer (someone) membership, as in a group or club.
  • intransitive verb Games To state one's intention to take (tricks of a certain number or suit in cards).
  • intransitive verb To utter (a greeting or salutation).
  • intransitive verb To issue a command to; direct.
  • intransitive verb To invite to attend; summon.
  • intransitive verb To make an offer to pay or accept a specified price.
  • intransitive verb To seek to win or attain something; strive.
  • noun An offer to pay a certain amount of money for something.
  • noun The amount offered or proposed.
  • noun An invitation, especially one offering membership in a group or club.
  • noun An earnest effort to win or attain something.
  • noun The act of bidding in cards.
  • noun The number of tricks or points declared.
  • noun The trump or no-trump declared.
  • noun The turn of a player to bid.
  • idiom (bid defiance) To refuse to submit; offer resistance to.
  • idiom (bid fair) To appear likely.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An offer of a price; specifically, an offer made or the price offered at an auction: as, to increase another's bid.
  • To ask; request; invite.
  • To pray; wish earnestly or devoutly; hence, to say by way of greeting or benediction: as, to bid good-day, farewell, etc.
  • To command; order or direct; enjoin.
  • To offer; propose: as, to bid a price at an auction.
  • To raise the price of in bidding; increase the amount offered for: with up: as, to bid up a thing beyond its value.
  • To proclaim; make known by a public announcement; declare: as, “our bans thrice bid,” Gay, What d'ye Call it?
  • To make an offer; offer a price: as, to bid at an auction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To pray.
  • intransitive verb To make a bid; to state what one will pay or take.
  • noun An offer of a price, especially at auctions; a statement of a sum which one will give for something to be received, or will take for something to be done or furnished; that which is offered.
  • imp. & p. p. of bid.
  • transitive verb To make an offer of; to propose. Specifically : To offer to pay ( a certain price, as for a thing put up at auction), or to take (a certain price, as for work to be done under a contract).
  • transitive verb To offer in words; to declare, as a wish, a greeting, a threat, or defiance, etc.
  • transitive verb Mostly obs. To proclaim; to declare publicly; to make known.
  • transitive verb To order; to direct; to enjoin; to command.
  • transitive verb To invite; to call in; to request to come.
  • transitive verb [Obs.] to pray with beads, as the Roman Catholics; to distinguish each bead by a prayer.
  • transitive verb to defy openly; to brave.
  • transitive verb to offer a good prospect; to make fair promise; to seem likely.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To issue a command; to tell.
  • verb transitive To invite; to summon; to offer.
  • verb transitive To utter a greeting or salutation.
  • verb intransitive To make an offer to pay or accept a certain price.
  • verb transitive To offer as a price.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bidden, to ask, command (from Old English biddan; see gwhedh- in Indo-European roots) and Middle English beden, to offer, proclaim (from Old English bēodan; see bheudh- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English verb biddan ‘ask, demand’. Conflation from Old English verb bēodan ‘offer, announce’

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English verb bēodan ("offer, announce"). Conflation from Old English verb biddan ("ask, demand").

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Examples

  • Not that I’m planning to bid, but: if I *bid* $2,500 – or $25,000 – and no-one else raises the ante above $2,025.01, presumably I’d win at $2,050 or so.

    Adding to the Auction Pot « Whatever 2008

  • The fact that these three different techniques yield such similar results suggests that awareness of Murkowski's write-in bid is high and her support is solidifying.

    New Polls Confirm A 'Three-Way Toss-Up' in Alaska The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • The fact that these three different techniques yield such similar results suggests that awareness of Murkowski's write-in bid is high and her support is solidifying.

    New Polls Confirm A 'Three-Way Toss-Up' in Alaska The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • Juan Martin Del Potro to mount another title bid and it is likely to prove a stretch too far for Mardy Fish, while dangerous floaters Ernests Gulbis and Milos Raonic will fall short.

    Evening Standard - Home 2011

  • Juan Martin Del Potro to mount another title bid and it is likely to prove a stretch too far for Mardy Fish, while dangerous floaters Ernests Gulbis and Milos Raonic will fall short.

    Evening Standard - Home 2011

  • Santos, who'd earned his title bid this past June with a knockout of DREAM champion Marius Zaromskis, valiantly tried to stop the onslaught.

    SI.com 2011

  • The class of 2008 appeared to be ready to conquer the world but victory in Milan came amid a dramatic implosion of their title bid before Liverpool advanced to the semi-finals in Europe on a spectacular night at Anfield.

    Evening Standard - Home James Olley 2012

  • Looking back over the history of the Chase since it began in 2004 shows that while the first race of the Chase doesn't win a championship, it can certainly end a title bid for drivers that get into a hole early.

    SI.com 2011

  • Leon Haslam - one of seven British riders potentially capable of challenging for glory in the 2010 World Superbike Championship (WSBK) - is keen to get his title bid off to a strong start in the Phillip Island curtain-raiser Down Under this weekend

    Crash.Net Motorsports Newsfeed 2010

  • KOLKATA: Sixth-seeded Karan Rastogi failed to take his good form to a justifiable end as fifth-seeded Murad Inoyatov of Uzbekistan foiled his title bid in the final of the $15,000

    The Hindu - Front Page 2010

Comments

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  • Rx abbv. for Bis in die.

    February 18, 2009