corner the market

Idioms & Phrases

corner the market

Buy all or most of a commodity or stock so that its price goes up. For example, In a famous maneuver the Hunt brothers cornered the market in silver. This idiom uses corner in the sense of "drive would-be buyers into a corner." [Early 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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