corner the market: meaning and explanation
The original meaning of this idiom was related to controlling the price of a particular commodity by buying most or all of the supply.
Nowadays, the idiom is used more generally. If a company corners the market, then they are much more successful than all of their competitors at selling a specific product or in a specific market. e.g. It only took the company a few years to corner the market in ethical smartphones.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Micro-listening #1
Accent: Scotland
About the sentence
…our highly competitive pricing…
Highly competitive is a useful collocation to use when you want to describe a low or cheap price in a positive way. e.g. We pride ourselves on the fact that our prices are highly competitive.
Micro-listening #2
Accent: North America
About the sentence
…upmarket fast food…
Upmarket describes products which are of high quality and likely to be more expensive, and target customers with higher spending power. e.g. The new CEO would like to shift our focus towards more upmarket products.
Micro-listening #3
Accent: England (RP)
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
