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Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.
buy verb (buys, bought, buying) 1 tr & intr to obtain something by paying a sum of money for it. Opposite of sell. 2 to be a means of obtaining something There are some things money can't buy. 3 to obtain something by giving up or sacrificing something else success bought at the expense of happiness. 4 colloq to believe or accept as true I don't buy his story. 5 (sometimes buy someone off) to bribe them He can't be bought, he's thoroughly honest. noun (usually in a good buy or a bad buy) a thing bought. buy time colloq to gain more time before a decision or action, etc is taken. have bought it slang to have been killed.
ETYMOLOGY: Anglo-Saxon bycgan.
buy something in 1 to buy a stock or supply of it. 2 at an auction: to buy it back for the owner when the reserve price is not reached. buy into something to buy shares or an interest in (a company, etc). buy someone off to get rid of (a threatening person, etc) by paying them money. buy oneself out to pay to be released from the armed forces. buy someone out to pay to take over possession of something from them, especially to buy all the shares that they hold in a company. See also buy-out. buy something up to buy the whole stock of it. |
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The Chambers Dictionary (13th edition)
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Chambers Biographical Dictionary
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Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.
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