loss leader

noun

a popular article that is sold at a very low price or at a loss for the purpose of attracting customers to a retail store. Compare leader ( def 4 ).

Origin:
1920–25

Related forms

loss-lead·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To loss leader

Collins

World English Dictionary

loss leader

—n
	an article offered below cost in the hope that customers attracted by it will buy other goods

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10

Loss leader is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Example sentences

Clearly, this was a loss leader for the post office.

But grocers will only advertise if the product is a loss leader, a low-cost

item that brings in customers.

In fact the reactor is the loss leader for companies that make fuel rods.

We believe that audit fees have been artificially low because audit work has

been used as a loss leader to obtain consulting work.

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Matching Quote

"Most of the ladies and gentlemen who mourn the passing of the nation's leaders wouldn't know a leader if they saw one. If they had the bad luck to come across a leader, they would find out that he might demand something from them, and this impertinence would put an abrupt and indignant end to their wish for his return."

-Lewis H. Lapham