open marketn.adj.

1455 Rolls of Parl. V. 324/2 All Bruers..bought their malt in ye open marketts.

1472–3 Rolls of Parl. VI. 54/2 The Shireff of Cornewaill..make open proclamation in the said Counte at severall tymes in open market.

1564 in J. H. Burton Reg. Privy Council Scotl. (1877) 1st Ser. I. 279 To by or sell any maner of tymmer..but in oppin and plane marcattis.

1664 S. Butler Hudibras: Second Pt. ii. i. 50 Where, when, by whom, & what y'were sold for, And in the open Market toll'd for?

1688 Laws of Barbados 19 Dec. (1855) 10 Debtors that have their cattle, coppers and stills, and other chattels brought by execution to the open market to be outcried.

1766 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. xxx. 449 Our Saxon ancestors prohibited the sale of any thing above the value of twenty pence, unless in open market.

1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 627 The law of Scotland differs from that of England as to the legal effect of a sale in open market.

1870 J. K. Medbery Men & Myst. Wall St. 18 The stock which has occasioned the default is sold or bought in the open market under the rule.

1900 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 14 274 The new stock is to be sold in open market, and not to the holders of the old stock, in order to forestall criticism that the bank is owned by a ring of capitalists.

1947 Amer. Econ. Rev. 37 149 Other countries..have repatriated substantial amounts of foreign-held public debt, some through private purchase but to a larger extent by purchases in the open market.

1991 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 20 Nov. b.7/1 Mexico..under NAFTA, would develop as a prosperous, open market for U.S. and Canadian goods.

2000 Independent 17 Feb. ii. 2/6 Unwanted meat from minority faiths is going out on the open market to unsuspecting customers.

1876 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 39 123 Of late years there has been between the Bank of England official minimum and the open market rate a divergence which tends..to increase.

1928 F. A. Bradford Money xv. 283 The open market operations of the reserve banks.

1972 Times 26 Jan. 6/2 To have the said rent reviewed at the said time by reference to the open market rental value of the demised premises.

1991 Impact of Sci. on Society (UNESCO) No. 162. 84 Open market structures with services and fares proposed by competing operators.

1978 Times 6 July 6/8 A new clause [to the Finance Bill]..enabled a person with a life annuity contract with a life office to take the benefit and put it with another life office which offered rather better terms. It was known as the open market option.

1987 A. C. Cherin & R. C. Hutchins in Jrnl. Risk & Insurance 54 696 The IRR which equates the individually created investment stream resulting from the open market option to ULFE.

2000 Reader's Digest Oct. 176/2 (advt.) You can take your fund and shop around in the annuity market to see if you can get better terms. This is known as the ‘open market option’.