Meaning of bid in English

bid

verb

/bɪd/ us

/bɪd/

bid verb (OFFER)

C2 [ I or T ] present participle bidding | past tense bid | past participle bid

to offer a particular amount of money for something that is for sale and compete against other people to buy it, especially at a public sale of goods or property:

She knew she couldn't afford it, so she didn't bid.

bid for The communications group has shown an interest in bidding for the company.

bid something for something A foreign collector has bid $500,000 for the portrait.

[ + two objects ] What am I bid for this fine vase?

[ I ] present participle bidding | past tense bid | past participle bid

If two or more people bid for a job, they compete with each other to do the work by offering to do it for a particular amount of money:

bid for The department is trying to ensure fairer competition among firms bidding for city contracts.

[ T + to infinitive ] present participle bidding | past tense bid | past participle bid

If someone bids to do something, they compete with other people to do it:

Paris is bidding to host the next Olympics.

[ I or T ] present participle bidding | past tense bid | past participle bid

(in some card games) to say, before play starts, how many points you expect to win in a particular game:

Before you decide how to bid, you need to evaluate how strong the hand of cards you are holding is.

She bid three diamonds.

More examplesFewer examples

Online auctions, where buyers bid for items over the internet, have become increasingly popular.
How much did you bid for that antique vase?
Five countries are bidding to host the next World Cup.
The game gives players the chance to bid for property.
The council invited contractors to bid for the right to build on the site of the old City Hall.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Negotiating prices

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Buying

Competing and contending (non-sporting)

Card games

bid verb (TELL)

[ T ] old-fashioned present participle bidding | past tense bid or bade | past participle bidden

to give a greeting to someone, or to ask someone to do something:

[ + two objects ] They bade her good morning.

bid someone/something farewell I must now bid you farewell (= say goodbye to you).

literary She bade her hopes farewell (= she stopped being hopeful).

[ + object + (to) infinitive ] He bade (= asked) them (to) leave at once.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Giving orders & commands

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Welcoming, greeting & greetings

bid

noun [ C ]

/bɪd/ us

/bɪd/

bid noun [C] (OFFER)

an offer of a particular amount of money for something that is for sale:

make a bid I made a bid of $150 for the painting.

put in a bid She put in a bid of £69,000 for the flat, which was accepted.

an offer to do something when you are competing with other people to do it:

[ + to infinitive ] Sydney made a successful bid to host the Olympic Games.

I gave the job to the contractors who made the lowest bid (= who offered to do the work for the lowest amount of money).

(in some card games) a statement, made before play starts, of how many points a player thinks he or she will get in a particular game :

The declarer must make as many tricks as his bid has promised.

More examplesFewer examples

The hospital is making approaches to local businesses in their bid to raise money.
They've put in a bid for the company/a bid to buy the company.
At the last minute another company stepped forward with a bid.
Their million-pound bid for the company was trumped at the last moment by an offer for almost twice as much from their main competitor.
The company's shares wobbled with the news of a foreign takeover bid.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Buying

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Competing and contending (non-sporting)

Card games

bid noun [C] (ATTEMPT)

an attempt to achieve or get something:

bid for Her bid for re-election was unsuccessful.

takeover bid The company has managed to fight off a hostile takeover bid (= an attempt by another company to take control of it).

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Trying and making an effort

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in a bid to

in order to try to get or do something:

They have reduced the cost of borrowing in a bid to get the economy moving again.

She wants to recruit more police officers in a bid to reduce crime in the city.

The examiners set the pass mark lower in a bid to keep results in line with previous years.

In a bid to boost environmentally friendly tourism, the council has set up a series of recharging points for electric vehicles.

Local people have formed a pressure group in a bid to block the development.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Trying and making an effort

See more results »

(Definition of bid from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

bid | American Dictionary

bid

verb

/bɪd/

bid verb (OFFER)

Add to word list Add to word list

[ I/T ] present participle bidding | past tense and past participle bid

to offer a particular amount of money for something when competing against other people to buy it:

[ T ] A collector bid $500,000 for the portrait.

[ I/T ] present participle bidding | past tense and past participle bid

People who bid for/on a job offer to do it for a particular amount of money.

[ I/T ] present participle bidding | past tense and past participle bid

Someone who bids to do something competes with others to do it:

[ I ] Paris is bidding to host the next Olympics.

bid verb (TELL)

[ T ] present participle bidding | past tense bid or bade us/bæd, beɪd/ | past participle bidden us/ˈbɪd·ən/ bid

to give a greeting to someone, or to ask someone to do something:

He bade us farewell.

bid

noun [ C ]

/bɪd/

bid noun [C] (OFFER)

an offer of a particular amount of money for something that is for sale:

The minimum bid for these dolls is $75.

A bid is also an offer to do a job for a particular price:

His bid to build the garage was too high.

A bid for something is an attempt to achieve or obtain it:

Her bid for reelection was unsuccessful.

(Definition of bid from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

bid | Business English

bid

verb

/bɪd/ us

past tense and past participle bid

Add to word list Add to word list

[ I or T ] COMMERCE, FINANCE

to compete to buy something by offering a particular amount of money for it:

We have a keen interest in the property, although we have not made any definite decision to bid.

bid for sth Potential buyers must register and bid for items online before the cutoff dates.

bid sth for sth The previously unknown company bid $9.3 billion for the oil fields.

[ I ]

to compete for work by offering to do it for a particular price:

bid for sth Taylor-Stanley yesterday confirmed it had bid for the contract.

bid on sth Follow these steps to bid successfully on a government contract.

[ I ]

to compete to be chosen to do something:

The city is bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

Phrasal verb

bid sth up

bid

noun [ C ]

/bɪd/ us

COMMERCE, FINANCE

an offer to buy something for a particular price:

a bid of £50m

make a bid for sth It is believed the team are ready to make a bid for the player.

a failed/successful bid

an offer to do work for a particular price:

invite bids for sth/to do sth The state government is inviting bids to carry out maintenance work on all the state highways.

make/put in/submit a bid for/on sth It was the second time they had submitted a bid for the contract.

an attempt to achieve or get something:

bid for sth He lost his bid for re-election to the board.

The government has reduced the cost of borrowing in a bid to get the economy moving again.

See also

agreed bid
cabinet bid
cash bid
closed bid
conditional bid
counter-bid
friendly bid
hostile bid
open bid
opposed bid
paper bid
sealed bid
takeover bid
unconditional bid

(Definition of bid from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of bid

bid

The commissioning group facilitated bids from the voluntary sector, linking them to academic units.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Takes the value of 1 if there was an organizational diagram of the proposed management and delivery structure of the bid, 0 otherwise.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Regarding the follow-up bid, it appeared that the distribution of (yes, yes) responses diminished with bid size.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Quality of the bid document appeared in eight of the ten regions, though not the same quality variables.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

With no support in the south and east, his presidential bid was all but doomed even before it was launched.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

First, the government changed the rules of eligibility for urban funding so that bidding groups outside the old programme areas could apply.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Agents used in e-commerce applications may negotiate contracts or bid in auctions on behalf of their users.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The bid-ask spread displays a similar seasonal pattern, with weekends exhibiting larger spreads (0.00110) relative to regular business days (0.00083).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These bids flowed down the chain from customer to supplier until most of the buy bids had filtered to the sellers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The quantity bid for depends on the source destination pair's demand and link capacity constraints.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Pre-1986 contracts had been costed and bid at pre-devaluation rates.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Its basic functions guide its constraints in narrowing the ranges of their bids.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Takes the value 1 if there was any community involvement with the bid mentioned, 0 otherwise.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The bidder had made the same bid in an earlier round.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The preference for low pressure steam was exercised here at a slightly higher cost than hot water: £5,115 versus.£4,815 in the successful bid.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with bid

bid

These are words often used in combination with bid.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

automatic bid

In seventeen cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

competitive bid

As we see it, more time means a more competitive bid against those who have made the in-house bid in good faith.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

desperate bid to

It distorts reality in a desperate bid to convince the people that all this is for their own good.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

See all collocations with bid

What is the pronunciation of bid?

What is the pronunciation of bidden?

Translations of bid

in Chinese (Traditional)

出價, （尤指在拍賣中）出價，喊價競買, 投標，競標…

in Chinese (Simplified)

出价, （尤指在拍卖中）出价，喊价竞买, 投标，竞标…

in Spanish

ofrecer, puja, oferta…

in Portuguese

fazer uma oferta, fazer uma oferta de, oferta…

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बोली लावणे, प्रस्ताव देणे, प्रयत्न करणे…

（よいことをしようとする）試み, 企て, 努力…

girişim, deneme, teşebbüs…

offre [feminine], tentative [feminine], faire une enchère (de)…

intent, oferta, licitació…

bieden, offerte doen voor, gelasten…

விற்பனைக்கு உள்ள ஒரு பொருளுக்கு ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட தொகையை வழங்குவது மற்றும் அதை வாங்குவதற்கு மற்றவர்களுடன் போட்டியிடுவது, குறிப்பாக பொருட்கள் அல்லது சொத்துக்களின் பொது விற்பனையில் இருப்பது, விற்பனைக்கு இருக்கும் ஒரு பொருளுக்கு ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட தொகையை வழங்குதல்…

बोली लगाना, बोली, प्रयास…

બોલી લગાવવી, બોલી, પ્રયાસ…

byde, byde på, bede…

bjuda, lämna anbud, be…

bida, membida, menyuruh…

bieten, bewerben, einladen…