sell one's own grandmother

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to do something morally wrong for personal gain

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Làm điều gì đó không đúng đắn vì lợi ích cá nhân

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to sell a close relative
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He would sell his own grandmother to get ahead in business

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “sell one's own grandmother” mean?

to do something morally wrong for personal gain Literally: to sell a close relative

Is “sell one's own grandmother” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.