vendor
Americannoun
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law a person who sells something, esp real property
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another name for vending machine
Usage
What is a vendor? A vendor is a person or business that sells something, as in The school lunch really improved after it changed food vendors.A vendor is also a machine that dispenses items after you put money into it. It’s more often called a vending machine.Example: The vendor told me that the box has a scratch, so she’s selling it cheap.
Etymology
Origin of vendor
1585–95; < Anglo-French vendo ( u ) r < Latin venditor. See vend, -or 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A vendor at Colombo's Pettah night market, Wasantha Jayalath, 55, said he voted for Dissanayake in 2024 hoping for better times, but felt the situation was getting worse.
From Barron's • Apr. 4, 2026
One vendor sold t-shirts with captions proclaiming “LEGEND” alternatively accompanying pictures of Charlie Kirk or, for some reason, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts together in costume from The Andy Griffith Show.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2026
At the weekly gathering, which features a food vendor, cocktails, tattoo artists and DJs, you can “competitively play chess, learn the game, meet new friends or mingle as a single person,” Thompson shares.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026
When your customer’s AI vendor helps it negotiate against you, your pricing power isn’t eroding.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026
At the suggestion of Shin’s new friend, who knew cheap places to eat, they stopped on the way to his apartment and bought hot noodles from a street vendor.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
