sell like hot cakes

sell like hot cakes

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

sell like hot cakes (third-person singular simple present sells like hot cakes, present participle selling like hot cakes, simple past and past participle sold like hot cakes)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To be sold in large numbers quickly.

   During a power outage, candles sell like hot cakes.

   • 1979, Robin Scott (lyrics and music), “Pop Muzik”:

     You're living in a disco / Forget about the rat race / Let's do the Milkshake / Selling like a hotcake

   • 2003, Jim Berkenstadt; Charles R. Cross, Nevermind: Nirvana‎:

     Geffen employees confirm that about half of the initial run of forty-six thousand [copies of Nevermind] went to the Northwest, where it sold like hot cakes.

   • 2005, G. Timothy Haight; Daniel Singer, The real estate investment handbook:

     These units will sell like hot cakes for $400000 apiece. Our cost will be $250000. It's a regular gold mine.

   • 2009, John o'Groat Journal, 27 November, "Calendar boys get their tops off"

     CALENDARS featuring local men willing to get their kit off for charity are selling like hot cakes after hitting the market this week.

   • 2012, Cosmo Knight, "The Day After the Great Trout Run"

     I sold 12 trout specials yesterday, they sold like hot cakes.

Translations

sell quickly

Chinese: Mandarin: 暢銷／畅销 (zh) (chàngxiāo), 熱銷／热销 (zh) (rèxiāo), 大賣／大卖 (zh) (dàmài) (slang, neologism) Dutch: please add this translation if you can Finnish: mennä kuin kuumille kiville, mennä kaupaksi, tehdä kauppansa, käydä kaupaksi French: se vendre comme des petits pains (fr) Hungarian: viszik, mint a cukrot, veszik, mint a cukrot, elkapkodják Icelandic: fljúga út, seljast eins og heitar lummur (is), renna út Italian: andare a ruba Japanese: 飛ぶように売れる (tobu yō ni ureru) Norwegian: selge som varmt hvetebrød Polish: sprzedawać się jak świeże bułeczki impf, sprzedać się jak świeże bułeczki pf Portuguese: please add this translation if you can Romanian: a se vinde ca pâinea caldă Russian: с руками оторвать (s rukami otorvatʹ, literally “to tear away with the hands”) Spanish: vender como churros, vender como rosquillas Swedish: sälja som smör, sälja som smör i solsken Thai: เทน้ำเทท่า (tee-náam-tee-tâa), ขายดิบขายดี (th) (kǎai-dìp-kǎai-dii) Vietnamese: bán chạy như tôm tươi

See also

• fly off the shelves
• like hot cakes