purchase
Syllables: pur·chaseUK/ˈpɜːtʃɪs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈpəːtʃəs/
purchase noun: the acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
Noun
purchase (countable and uncountable, plural purchases)
- 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.
- Synonyms:
- emption
- That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.
- He was pleased with his latest purchase.
- [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!1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
- That which is obtained, got or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
- The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
- I'll […] get meat to save thee, / Or lose my life i’ th’ purchase.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...
- A price paid for a house or estate, etc. equal to the amount of the rent or income during the stated number of years.
- Suppose a freehold house to be worth 20 years’ purchase […]1848, The Sessional Papers printed by order of the House of Lords
- 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.
- 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.2009, Mark Fisher, chapter 8, in Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, →ISBN, pages 66–67
- 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.
- 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...1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487
- The amount of hold one has from an individual foothold or ledge.
- 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.2015, Hao Jingfang, “Folding Beijing”, in Ken Liu, transl., Uncanny Magazine, number 2
- Acquisition of lands or tenements by means other than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.
- The difference […]between the acquisition of an estate by descent and by purchase1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC
Verb
purchase (third-person singular simple present purchases, present participle purchasing, simple past and past participle purchased)
- To buy, obtain by payment of a price in money or its equivalent.
- to purchase land, to purchase a house
- Synonyms:
- procure
- To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.
- that loves the thing he cannot purchase1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Ægloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC
- 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.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...
- To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.
- to purchase favor with flattery
- One poor retiring minute […] / Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends.1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC
- To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
- Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.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...
- 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
- To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert oneself.
- Duke John of Brabant purchased greatly that the Earl of Flanders should have his daughter in marriage.1523–1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Froissart's Chronicles
- 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.
Proper noun capitalized: Purchase
Purchase
purchase meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
purchase in Hindi
- the acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price
- क्रय kray
- to obtain by paying money or its equivalent; to buy for a price — see also buy
- क्रय kray
purchase in Tamil
- வாங்குதல், கொள்முதல்
purchase in Marathi
- purchase, purchasing
- खरेदी kharedī
purchase in Urdu
- purchase
- مول mol
More languagesFewer languages
- purchase in Bengali
- ক্রয়, কেনা, খরিদ, সংগ্রহ
- purchase in Telugu
- క్రయము krayamu
- purchase in Malayalam
- വാങ്ങുക, സമ്പാദിക്കുക, കിട്ടുക, നേടുക
- purchase in Kannada
- ಬಿಲಿತರು, ಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು, ಕ್ರಯ ಮಾಡುವುದು
- purchase in Punjabi
- ਖ਼ਰੀਦਦਾਰੀ
- purchase in Gujarati
- ખરચો kharco
- purchase in Odia
- ଘେନିବା ghenibā
- purchase in Tagalog
- mamili
- purchase in Arabic
- شِرَاء širāʔ, اِشْتِرَاء ištirāʔ, مُشْتَرًى muštaran, مُشْتَرَيَات muštarayāt
- purchase in Malay
- pembelian
- purchase in Indonesian
- pembelian
- purchase in Persian
- خرید xarid, خریداری xaridâri
Examples of purchase in a sentence
- Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
- His faults […] hereditary / Rather than purchased.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies...
Synonyms of purchase
Antonyms
Forms of purchase
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | purchases |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | purchases |
| present participle | purchasing |
| past participle | purchased |
| past | purchased |
Origin of purchase
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”).
Words formed from purchase
- compulsory purchase
- compulsory purchase order
- counterpurchase
- distress purchase
- hire purchase
- impulse purchase
- interpurchase
- micropurchase
- mispurchase
- money purchase
- nominee purchase
- nonpurchase
- point of purchase
- postpurchase
- proof of purchase
- purchase funnel
- purchase journal
- purchase order
- purchase price
- purchase prize
- purchase requisition
- purchase shears
- purchase system
- repurchase
- splurchase
- straw purchase
- year's purchase
- overpurchase
- prepurchase
- forepurchased
- nonpurchased
- nonpurchasing
- outpurchase
- purchasability
- purchasable
- purchaseless
- purchaser
- purchase to pay
- purchasing agent
- purchasing power
- unpurchaseable
- unpurchased
Phrases with purchase
Questions about purchase
- What does purchase mean?
- Purchase means the acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
- What is purchase in Hindi?
- Purchase in Hindi is क्रय (kray). See Purchase meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use purchase in a sentence?
- Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.
- What part of speech is purchase?
- Purchase can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce purchase?
- Purchase is pronounced /ˈpɜːtʃɪs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of purchase?
- The plural of purchase is purchases.
Words near purchase in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: purchase (page history and authors); Purchase (page history and authors); purchase (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); खरेदी (Marathi) (page history and authors); مول (Urdu) (page history and authors); purchase (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); క్రయము (Telugu) (page history and authors); purchase (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); purchase (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); purchase (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଘେନିବା (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-purchase.ogg.
Cite this entry: “purchase.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/purchase. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.