purchase

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (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[edit]

Noun[edit]

purchase (countable and uncountable, plural purchases)

  1. (obsolete) The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
    • Beaumont and Fletcher
      I'll […] get meat to have thee, / Or lose my life in the purchase.
  2. An individual item one has purchased.
  3. 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.
  4. That which is obtained, got or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
  5. That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.
    He was pleased with his latest purchase.
  6. (uncountable) Any mechanical hold or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle or capstan.
    It is hard to get purchase on a nail without a pry bar or hammer.
  7. 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.
  8. (rock climbing, uncountable) The amount of hold one has from an individual foothold or ledge.
  9. (law, dated) Acquisition of lands or tenements by means other than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Blackstone to this entry?)

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

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

  1. To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.
    • Spenser
      that loves the thing he cannot purchase
    • Shakespeare
      Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.
    • Shakespeare
      His faults […] hereditary / Rather than purchased.
  2. To buy, obtain by payment of a price in money or its equivalent.
    to purchase land, to purchase a house
  3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.
    to purchase favor with flattery
    • Shakespeare
      One poor retiring minute […] / Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends.
  4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
    • Shakespeare
      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 purchase a cannon
  6. To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert oneself.
    • Ld. Berners
      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[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
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