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.
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.
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.