sell one's soul

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To sacrifice one's integrity or values for personal gain

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Hy sinh tính liêm chính hoặc giá trị vì lợi ích cá nhân

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to sell one's spiritual essence
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He sold his soul to get the promotion

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 soul” mean?

To sacrifice one's integrity or values for personal gain Literally: to sell one's spiritual essence

Is “sell one's soul” formal or informal?

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