purchase

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

purchase

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɝ.t͡ʃəs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜː(ɹ).t͡ʃəs/
• Hyphenation: pur‧chase

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

purchase (countable and uncountable, plural purchases)

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

   They offer a free hamburger with the purchase of a drink.

2. That which is obtained, got or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
4. That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.

   He was pleased with his latest purchase.

   • 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

     [Said by a shopkeeper] I really don't think you can carry any more purchases. You can come again after you sell something, or you can simply discard an item to lighten your load. Or, you might want to sell the things you don't need here!

5. (obsolete) The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
   • c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii:

     I'll […] get meat to save thee, / Or lose my life i’ th’ purchase.

6. A price paid for a house or estate, etc. equal to the amount of the rent or income during the stated number of years.
   • 1848, The Sessional Papers printed by order of the House of Lords:

     Suppose a freehold house to be worth 20 years’ purchase […]

7. (uncountable, also figuratively) Any mechanical hold or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle or capstan.

   Synonyms: contact, grip, hold

   It is hard to get purchase on a nail without a pry bar or hammer.

   • 2009, Mark Fisher, chapter 8, in Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, →ISBN, pages 66–67:

     The problem is that the model of individual responsibility assumed by most versions of ethics have little purchase on the behavior of Capital or corporations.

8. The apparatus, tackle or device by which such mechanical advantage is gained and (in nautical terminology) the ratio of such a device, like a pulley, or block and tackle.
9. (climbing, uncountable) The amount of hold one has from an individual foothold or ledge.

   Synonyms: foothold, support

   • 2015, Hao Jingfang, “Folding Beijing”, in Ken Liu, transl., Uncanny Magazine‎, number 2:

     At first, he was climbing down, testing for purchase with his feet. But soon, as the entire section of ground rotated, he was lifted into the air, and up and down flipped around.

10. (law, dated) Acquisition of lands or tenements by means other than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.
    • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

      The difference […] between the acquisition of an estate by descent and by purchase

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

purchase (third-person singular simple present purchases, present participle purchasing, simple past and past participle purchased)

1. To buy, obtain by payment of a price in money or its equivalent.

   to purchase land, to purchase a house

2. To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Aegloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: , London: Hugh Singleton, , →OCLC; republished as The Shepheardes Calender , London: Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, , 1586, →OCLC:

     that loves the thing he cannot purchase

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.

   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     His faults […] hereditary / Rather than purchased.

3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.

   to purchase favor with flattery

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, , →OCLC:

     One poor retiring minute […] / Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends.

4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.

5. To apply to (anything) a device for obtaining a mechanical advantage; to get a purchase upon, or apply a purchase to; to raise or move by mechanical means.

   to purchase a cannon

6. To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert oneself.
   • 1523–1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Froissart's Chronicles

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

7. To constitute the buying power for a purchase, have a trading value.

   Many aristocratic refugees' portable treasures purchased their safe passage and comfortable exile during the revolution.

Synonyms

• (buy): procure

Derived terms

• purchasable
• purchasing agent
• purchasing power

Translations

Anagrams

• search up