What does "bargain" mean?

Bargain: An agreement or stipulation; mutual pledge. And whon your honors mean to solemnize The bargain of your faith. Shak.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A purchase; also ( when not qualified), a gainful transaction; an advantageous purchase; as, to buy a thing at a bargain.
  2. 3.The thing stipulated or purchased; also, anything bought cheap. She was too fond of her most filthy bargain. Shak. Bargain and sale (Law), a species of conveyance, by which the bargainor contracts to convey the lands to the bargainee, and becomes by such contract a trustee for and seized to the use of the bargainee. The statute then completes the purchase; i.e., the bargain vests the use, and the statute vests the possession. Blackstone. -- Into the bargain, over and above what is stipulated; besides. -- To sell bargains, to make saucy ( usually indelicate) repartees. [Obs.] Swift. -- To strike a bargain, to reach or ratify an agreement. "A bargain was struck." Macaulay.
  3. 4.To make a bargain; to make a contract for the exchange of property or services; -- followed by with and for; as, to bargain with a farmer for a cow. So worthless peasants bargain for their wives. Shak.
  4. 5.To transfer for a consideration; to barter; to trade; as, to bargain one horse for another. To bargain away, to dispose of in a bargain; -- usually with a sense of loss or disadvantage; as, to bargain away one's birthright. "The heir . . . had somehow bargained away the estate." G. Eliot.

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