purchase

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English

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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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.
  5. (obsolete) The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
  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.
    • 1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:
      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."
  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[1], 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.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Translations to be checked

Verb

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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.
  3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.
    to purchase favor with flattery
  4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
  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

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Translations to be checked

Anagrams

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