remainders

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of remainder.

   Discount tables near the entrance were stacked with publishers' remainders.

   The accountant tallied the remainders left in each fund at year's end.

   Note

   One spelling, several kinds of leftover. In a bookshop, remainders are unsold copies marked down for clearance. In arithmetic, they are what each division leaves behind. In law, they are estates an heir receives only after an earlier estate ends. Context picks the meaning, and the same spelling also serves the bookseller's verb, so "the shop remainders" and "the shop's remainders" say different things.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of remainder.

   The chain remainders unsold hardcovers within a year of release.

   She remainders overstocked titles to clear room on the shelves.

   Note

   A trade verb that always needs something to sell off as its object: a publisher remainders a title, and a chain remainders its overstock. It belongs to the same world as the noun for unsold, discounted stock, so the two often appear together. The store remainders its slow sellers, and those remainders end up on the bargain table.

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