purchase
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɝ.t͡ʃəs/
ipa: /ˈpɜː(ɹ).t͡ʃəs/
note: Indic
ipa: /pə(r)ˈtʃes/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈpɜ(r).tʃəs/
Forms: form: purchases
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”).
Senses: examples: text: They offer a free hamburger with the purchase of a drink.
glosses: The acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
examples: text: He was pleased with his latest purchase.
text: [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!
ref: 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:
glosses: That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.
glosses: That which is obtained, got or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
examples: text: I'll […] get meat to save thee, / Or lose my life i’ th’ purchase.
ref: 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:
glosses: The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
examples: text: Suppose a freehold house to be worth 20 years’ purchase […]
ref: 1848, The Sessional Papers printed by order of the House of Lords:
glosses: A price paid for a house or estate, etc. equal to the amount of the rent or income during the stated number of years.
examples: text: It is hard to get purchase on a nail without a pry bar or hammer.
text: 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.
ref: 2009, Mark Fisher, chapter 8, in Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, →ISBN, pages 66–67:
synonyms: contact
grip
hold
glosses: Any mechanical hold or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle or capstan.
examples: text: He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."
ref: 1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2015, Hao Jingfang, “Folding Beijing”, in Ken Liu, transl., Uncanny Magazine, number 2:
topics: climbing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
synonyms: foothold
support
glosses: The amount of hold one has from an individual foothold or ledge.
examples: text: The difference […]between the acquisition of an estate by descent and by purchase
ref: 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
topics: law
glosses: Acquisition of lands or tenements by means other than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.
Synonyms: word: emption
word: purchase
Hypernyms: word: acquisition
word: transaction
Hyponyms: word: simony
Derived terms: compulsory purchase
compulsory purchase order
distress purchase
hire purchase
impulse purchase
money purchase
nominee purchase
point of purchase
proof of purchase
purchase funnel
purchase journal
purchase order
purchase price
purchase prize
purchase requisition
purchase shears
purchase system
repurchase
straw purchase
year's purchase
Related terms: word: purchaser
word: buy