PURCHASE

Definitions

1. 1. The act of seeking, getting, or obtaining anything. [Obs.] I'll . . . get meat to have thee, Or lose my life in the purchase. Beau. & Fl.
2. 2. The act of seeking and acquiring property.
3. 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. 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. 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. 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. 7. 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.