sell someone a bill of goods

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to deceive or cheat someone by persuading them to accept something false

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Lừa dối ai đó bằng cách thuyết phục họ chấp nhận điều gì đó sai

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to sell someone a list of products
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The salesman sold me a bill of goods about the car's condition

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 someone a bill of goods” mean?

to deceive or cheat someone by persuading them to accept something false Literally: to sell someone a list of products

Is “sell someone a bill of goods” formal or informal?

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