Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - wholesale

1. Wholesale is the activity of buying and selling goods in large quantities and therefore at cheaper prices, usually to shopkeepers who then sell them to the public. Compare retail. (BUSINESS) Warehouse clubs allow members to buy goods at wholesale prices... I am in the wholesale trade. N-UNCOUNT: usu N n 2. If something is sold wholesale, it is sold in large quantities and at cheaper prices, usually to shopkeepers. (BUSINESS) The fabrics are sold wholesale to retailers, fashion houses, and other manufacturers. ADV: ADV after v 3. You use wholesale to describe the destruction, removal, or changing of something when it affects a very large number of things or people. They are only doing what is necessary to prevent wholesale destruction of vegetation... ADJ: ADJ n c darkgreen]emphasis