[ad. F. vendre (= It. vendere, Sp. and Pg. vender) or L. vendĕre to sell; but in senses 3 and 4 app. substituted for VENT v.2 4 and 5, through association of this with VENT v.3]
1. intr. To be disposed of by sale; to find a market or purchaser.
1622. in Foster, Eng. Factories India (1908), II. 46. Course and fine pursleene … which vend both slowlye and at cheape rates.
1640. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 96. Whereby Wool, the great Staple of the Kingdom, is become of small value, and vends not.
1689. Hickeringill, Modest Inquiries, v. 32. No Books vend so nimbly, as those that are sold (by Stealth as it were) and want Imprimaturs.
1768. Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, II. 371. If our manufactures are too dear they will not vend abroad.
2. trans. To sell; to dispose of by sale; to trade in as a seller.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. vii. 70. No Nation can be rich that receives more dead Commodities from abroad, then it can spend at home, or vend into Forrain parts.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 279. Formerly all the Silk made in Sicily was vended at Messina.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xxiii. 124. The Company vends a great Deal of Cloth and Ophium there, and brings Gold-dust in Return.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., VI. Wks. 1851, IV. 153. They opened warehouses in different parts of Europe, in which they vended their commodities.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 224. The produce of these small dairies is generally vended at Plymouth.
1840. Thackeray, Shabby-genteel Story, vii. Fishmongers who never sold a fish, mercers who vended not a yard of riband.
1879. Echo, No. 3374. 2/5. A license or patent to sell no matter what, includes the right to vend books and newspapers.
fig. To give utterance to, to put forward, advance (an opinion, etc.).
1657. North’s Plutarch, Add. Lives (1676), 7. Doubtless many have heard some Coridons, or Mechanick fellows … vending their judgements on him whose Effigies or Portraiture is here represented.
1673. Cave, Prim. Chr., III. v. 364. This uncomfortable Doctrine was if not first coined yet mainly vended by the Novatian Party.
1715. Bentley, Serm., x. 369. He that zealously vends his Novelties, what is he but a Trader for the fame of Singularity?
1718. Freethinker, No. 26. To incite the Men of Scholarship and Capacity to traffick together in Truths; and never to vend Falshoods of any kind to the Vulgar.
1799. Mrs. West, Tale of Times, III. 387. The most fashionable, and perhaps most successful, way of vending pernicious sentiments has been through the medium of books of entertainment.
1846. G. S. Faber, Lett. Tractar. Secess., 126. Those requisite proofs of a fact, which convict him and Mr. Ward of having … vended a double falsehood.
1907. P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching, iii. 101. He is not free to vend in his pulpit the extravagances of an eccentric individualism.
† 4. To give vent to, to direct. Obs.
1681. Hickeringill, Black Non-Conf., v. Wks. 1716, II. 49. If they will be angry, they should vend their spleen against the said wickedness of their Under-Officers.
