purchase
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɝ.t͡ʃəs/
ipa: /ˈpɜː(ɹ).t͡ʃəs/
note: Indic
ipa: /pə(r)ˈtʃes/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈpɜ(r).tʃəs/
Forms: form: purchases
form: purchasing
form: purchased
form: purchased
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: to purchase land, to purchase a house
glosses: To buy, obtain by payment of a price in money or its equivalent.
examples: text: that loves the thing he cannot purchase
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Ægloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC:
text: They [the English] are all on fire / To purchaſe from the Spaniard. If their Carracks / Come deeply laden, vvee ſhall tugge vvith them / For golden ſpoile.
ref: c. 1597–1603 (date written), Thomas Heywood, The Fair Maid of the West. Or, A Girle Worth Gold. The First Part. […], London: […] [Miles Flesher] for Richard Royston, […], published 1631, →OCLC, Act I, page 1:
text: Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: His faults […] hereditary / Rather than purchased.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
glosses: To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.
examples: text: to purchase favor with flattery
text: One poor retiring minute […] / Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends.
ref: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.
examples: text: Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
glosses: To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
examples: text: to purchase a cannon
glosses: 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.
examples: 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.
glosses: To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert oneself.
examples: text: Many aristocratic refugees' portable treasures purchased their safe passage and comfortable exile during the revolution.
glosses: To constitute the buying power for a purchase, have a trading value.
Synonyms: sense: buy
word: procure
Derived terms: purchasable
purchase to pay
purchasing agent
purchasing power