What does "buy" mean?
Buy: To acquire or procure by something given or done in exchange, literally or figuratively; to get, at a cost or sacrifice; to buy pleasure with pain. Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. Prov. xxiii.
Additional senses
- 2.To buy again. See Againbuy. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- To buy off. (a) To influence to compliance; to cause to bend or yield by some consideration; as, to buy off conscience. (b) To detach by a consideration given; as, to buy off one from a party. -- To buy out (a) To buy off, or detach from. Shak. (b) To purchase the share or shares of in a stock, fund, or partnership, by which the seller is separated from the company, and the purchaser takes his place; as, A buys out B. (c) To purchase the entire stock in trade and the good will of a business. -- To buy in, to purchase stock in any fund or partnership. -- To buy on credit, to purchase, on a promise, in fact or in law, to make payment at a future day. -- To buy the refusal (of anything), to give a consideration for the right of purchasing, at a fixed price, at a future time.
- 3.To negotiate or treat about a purchase. I will buy with you, sell with you. Shak.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00