Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use buy in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Buy means to obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods. Example: “Who'd Father buy the car for? He bought it for me, not for you.”

Examples of buy by meaning

verbTo obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods.

  • Who'd Father buy the car for? He bought it for me, not for you.

verbTo obtain, especially by some sacrifice.

  • I've bought material comfort by foregoing my dreams.
  • You just bought yourself an assault charge!

verbTo bribe.

  • He tried to buy me with gifts, but I wouldn't give up my beliefs.
  • "WHO has bought the both of you?" one X user asked of Bongino and Patel, referencing the Fox News interview.2025 May 20, Tal Axelrod, “MAGA faithful grow frustrated with Trump's Justice Department”, in Axios

verbTo be equivalent to in value.

  • The dollar doesn't buy as much as it used to.

verbTo accept as true; to believe.

  • I'm not going to buy your stupid excuses anymore!
  • People like to say that dead people look asleep, and maybe she would have bought that under different circumstances.2020, Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji, Faber & Faber Ltd, page 201

verbTo make a purchase or purchases, to treat (for a drink, meal or gift).

  • She buys for Federated.
  • Let's go out for dinner. I'm buying.

verbTo make a bluff, usually a large one.

  • Smith tried to buy the pot on the river with a huge bluff.

nounSomething which is bought; a purchase.

  • At only $30, the second-hand kitchen table was a great buy.
  • PEARS ARE GOOD FRUIT BUY FOR QUICK, EASY DESSERTS1954 August 25, The Napa Register, volume 164, number 79, Napa, Calif., →OCLC, page 3, column 4

More sentences with buy

  • If you want to buy a bicycle, you need to put the money in your piggy bank.From the entry bank
  • Every day at two o'clock, he sends his secretary out to buy him a coffee.From the entry send
  • Are you going to buy a new car or a second-hand one?From the entry new
  • If you want me to buy your weed I’ll need a picture.From the entry picture
  • You are to go to the store and buy a bottle of milk.From the entry to
  • He had the choice of buying a scratching post or a cat tree.From the entry tree
  • I came here to buy souvenirs, not to be subjected to a tirade of abuse!From the entry subject
  • "To buy" is an irregular English verb: its past simple and past participle tense is "bought".From the entry irregular
  • Did you buy the groceries? — With what money? We barely have any left.From the entry what
  • My life will be complete once I buy this new television.From the entry complete
  • You can buy apples in a pack, but they are cheaper loose.From the entry loose
  • I need to talk to mama before I buy the car.From the entry mama
  • She broke the matching set by buying a one of a kind item.From the entry break
  • The small shirt doesn't fit me, so I'll buy the medium size.From the entry fit
  • I forgot to buy flowers for my wife at our 14th wedding anniversary.From the entry forget
  • Let's buy a bottle of champagne if Mom comes, we’ll wait and see.From the entry let's
  • He made a careful comparison of the available products before buying anything.From the entry comparison
  • I want to buy one that costs somewhere between forty and fifty dollars.From the entry between
  • Many flat adverbs, as in 'run fast', 'buy cheap', etc. are from Old English.From the entry flat
  • Can you go and buy some yoghurt and blue cheese from the dairy?From the entry dairy
  • If I give you the money, will you buy it for me?From the entry if
  • The market decline was terrible, but the shorts were buying champagne.From the entry short
  • We priced a few laptops before deciding which one to buy.From the entry price
  • With eggs, you need to check for the quality mark before you buy.From the entry mark
  • After pay day I can afford to splash some cash and buy myself a motorbike.From the entry splash
  • Do not let anyone pressure you into buying something you do not want.From the entry pressure
  • Their decision to buy stocks just before the crisis led to their perdition.From the entry perdition

Meaning of buy

  1. verb To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods.
  2. verb To obtain, especially by some sacrifice.
  3. verb To suffer consequences for (something) through being deprived of something; to pay for (something one has done).

Full definition of buy

Questions about buy in a sentence

How do you use buy in a sentence?
Buy is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Who'd Father buy the car for? He bought it for me, not for you.”
What is a short sentence with buy?
“She buys for Federated.”
What does buy mean?
Buy means to obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: buy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use buy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/buy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.