Definitions for: Purchase


[n] the acquisition of something for payment; "they closed the purchase with a handshake"
[n] a means of exerting influence or gaining advantage; "he could get no purchase on the situation"
[n] the mechanical advantage gained by being in a position to use a lever
[n] something acquired by purchase
[v] obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; "She buys for the big department store"



Webster (1913) Definition: Pur"chase (?; 48), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Purchased;
p. pr. & vb. n. Purchasing.] [OE. purchasen, porchacen, OF.
porchacier, purchacier, to pursue, to seek eagerly, F.
pourchasser; OF. pour, por, pur, for (L. pro) + chacier to
pursue, to chase. See Chase.]
1. To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain,
obtain, or acquire. --Chaucer.

That loves the thing he can not purchase. --Spenser.

Your accent is Something finer than you could
purchase in so removed a dwelling. --Shak.

His faults . . . hereditary Rather than purchased.
--Shak.

2. To obtain by paying money or its equivalent; to buy for a
price; as, to purchase land, or a house.

The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of
Heth. --Gen. xxv.
10.

3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or
sacrifice, etc.; as, to purchase favor with flattery.

One poor retiring minute . . . Would purchase thee a
thousand thousand friends. --Shak.

A world who would not purchase with a bruise?
--Milton.

4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit. [Obs.]

Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
--Shak.

5. (Law)
(a) To acquire by any means except descent or inheritance.
--Blackstone.
(b) To buy for a price.

6. To apply to (anything) a device for obtaining a mechanical
advantage; to get a purchase upon, or apply a purchase to;
as, to purchase a cannon.


Pur"chase, v. i.
1. To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to
exert one's self. [Obs.]

Duke John of Brabant purchased greatly that the Earl
of Flanders should have his daughter in marriage.
--Ld. Berners.

2. To acquire wealth or property. [Obs.]

Sure our lawyers Would not purchase half so fast.
--J. Webster.


Pur"chase (?; 48), n. [OE. purchds, F. pourchas eager
pursuit. See Purchase, v. t.]
1. The act of seeking, getting, or obtaining anything. [Obs.]

I'll . . . get meat to have thee, Or lose my life in
the purchase. --Beau. & Fl.

2. The act of seeking and acquiring property.

3. The acquisition of title to, or properly in, anything for
a price; buying for money or its equivalent.

It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of
repentance. --Franklin.

4. That which is obtained, got, or acquired, in any manner,
honestly or dishonestly; property; possession;
acquisition. --Chaucer. B. Jonson.

We met with little purchase upon this coast, except
two small vessels of Golconda. --De Foe.

A beauty-waning and distressed widow . . . Made
prize and purchase of his lustful eye. --Shak.

5. That which is obtained for a price in money or its
equivalent. ``The scrip was complete evidence of his right
in the purchase.'' --Wheaton.

6. Any mechanical hold, or advantage, applied to the raising
or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle,
capstan, and the like; also, the apparatus, tackle, or
device by which the advantage is gained.

A politician, to do great things, looks for a power
-- what our workmen call a purchase. --Burke.

7. (Law) Acquisition of lands or tenements by other means
than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or
agreement. --Blackstone.

Purchase criminal, robbery. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Purchase money, the money paid, or contracted to be paid,
for anything bought. --Berkeley.

Worth, or At, [so many] years' purchase, a phrase by
which the value or cost of a thing is expressed in the
length of time required for the income to amount to the
purchasing price; as, he bought the estate at a twenty
years' purchase. To say one's life is not worth a day's
purchase in the same as saying one will not live a day, or
is in imminent peril.

Synonyms: buy, leverage

Antonyms: sell

See Also: acquire, acquisition, acquisition, bargain, buy, buy food, buy in, buy out, buy up, buyback, buying, choose, get, impulse-buy, influence, mechanical phenomenon, pay, pick out, pick up, purchasing, redemption, repurchase, select, steal, stock, stock buyback, subscribe, subscribe to, take, take out, take over

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