From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcome/go under the hammercome/go under the hammerSELLto be offered for sale at an auction → hammer
Examples from the Corpus
come/go under the hammer• As for football, it also came under the hammer for the usual reasons.• Read in studio A collection of battered old toys has come under the hammer at an auction today.• The rest of his collection is going under the hammer.• In 1972 it failed to reach reserve price when it came under the hammer at auction.• Hundreds of items go under the hammer to save a medieval manor.• A collection of prints and paintings by Picasso came under the hammer at Sotheby's yesterday.• It was part of the contents of a unique toy museum in Buckinghamshire most of which came under the hammer today.• So that and nearly 500 other lots will go under the hammer at Sotherbys tomorrow.• Three Renoir paintings will come under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York.• They will go under the hammer at the London auctioneers Spink on 17 May. 