Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Purchase?

\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.