sell out, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sell out v.

1. (orig. US) in senses of betrayal.

(a) (also sell) to sacrifice one’s own beliefs and principles for money or position.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 23: And B-R-G, – the devil’s own boy for the quids, – / Dispatch’d off a pigeon [...] with word ‘to sell out’.
1870		Nation 6 Jan. 1/1: The opposition candidate for the Speakership, [...] in the opinion of the bystanders, ‘sold out’ to his competitor [DA].
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 95: He’s sold himself, an’ th’ whole ward knows it.
1917		E. Pound letter Aug. in Paige (1971) 121: She is delightful. only she wanted me to sell out lock stock and barrel, and I said it didn’t interest me.
1931		G.S. Schuyler Black No More (1971) 115: Are you surprised that he sold out?
1944		J.T. Farrell ‘Patsy Gilbride’ To Whom It May Concern 17: We both sold out.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 235: This wasn’t selling out. This was just playing it smart.
1952		H. McCoy Corruption City 63: You were a cop and you sold out.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 96: I was no longer a villain, I had sold out.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 103: I’ve never sold out in my life, honest comrades!
1999		Observer 11 July 14: Y’know, they’ve just sold out. They’re married with children – it’s just such an objectionable ordinary thing to do.
2000		Indep. Rev. 12 May 5: He [...] didn’t sell out to Hollywood.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 10: Everybody sells out, is that what you were trying to say?

(b) as sell someone out, to betray someone or some external cause, for money or a similar reason.

1857		Lawrence Republican 2 July 1: If the Times has not been ‘sold out’ to the Border Ruffian party, it looks very much as if it has been ‘chartered’ [DA].
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 430: Harry Cole had ‘sold him out’ clean.
1888		J. Bryce Amer. Commonwealth III iv lxxxiii 110: When this transfer of the solid vote of a body of agitators is the result of a bargain with the old party which gets the vote, it is called ‘selling out’ [DA].
1901		F. Norris Octopus 446: You’ve sold us out, you [DA].
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 67: Everybody ’ll sell ye out if he gets enough.
1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 151: And so he sold out Sam and Barnes and left their friends to mourn, / Oh, what a scorching Jim will get when Gabriel blows his horn.
1923		D. Hammett ‘House Dick’ Nightmare Town (2001) 48: This Porky Grout was a dirty little rat who would sell out his family [...] for the price of a flop.
1930		E. Caldwell Poor Fool 21: The bastard who was running me sold me out.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 234: He had been sold out [...] They had betrayed him. [Ibid.] 398: He’s the kind [...] that sold out Wabash Avenue to the niggers.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 177: They would sell him out to the police or murder him for his share of the doping venture.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 166: That fellow has sold out on you for his own profit.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 87: These bastards would sell a guy out for an extra spoon of sugar.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 218: Note how many of them ‘ratted’ in a crisis and sold out the working-class.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 159: Anna Sage was selling Johnny out to the F.B.I. [...] She was selling him out for that $50,000 reward.
1958		R. Chandler Playback 75: You’ll sell me out fast.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 97: If Luca sold us out, we’re in real trouble.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 147: The gist of the talk from the people was that we had sold them out.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Joseph Martinez’ Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 220: Her priest sold her out to her old man.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Sell out. To inform upon.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 88: It’s [i.e. money] only yours ’cause you sold out Wesker and when Wesker got with the cops he sold me out.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 7: That cocksucker sold you out, man.

2. (UK milit.) for an officer to sell off his commission and leave the Army.

1833

Satirist (London) 7 July 3/3: [A] court-martial the end of which proceeding was; that he was recommended to sell out.—a step which he took without delay, and retired from the Army.

3. (US Und.) to die in a gunfight rather than surrender to the police.

1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

4. (orig. US black) to leave, to run away (in terror).

1934		H. Sebastian ‘Negro Sl. in Lincoln University’ AS IX:4 290: sell out. To get up and go; to move out.
1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ Novels and Stories (1995) 1010: Sell out: run in fear.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 219: They dug me with a brace of browns the other fish-black [...] and we sold out.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 57: You got to sell out of there fast.

5. (Aus./N.Z.) to vomit.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 238/2: sell out (make a sale) – to vomit.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 200: There’s a bloke selling out in the basin.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

In phrases

sell-out artist (n.)

(US und.) an informer, a traitor.

1955

B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] A conniver, yes. A chiseler. A liar. A phoney. A sell-out artist.