buy

buy¹ W1S1 [baı] v past tense and past participle bought [bo:t US bo:t]

[: Old English; Origin: bycgan]

1.)

a) [I and T]

to get something by paying money for it

≠ ↑sell

▪ Where did you buy that dress?

▪ Ricky showed her the painting he'd bought that morning.

buy sb sth

▪ Let me buy you a drink.

buy sth for sb/sth

▪ The money will be used to buy equipment for the school.

buy (sth) from sb

▪ It's cheaper to buy direct from the manufacturer.

buy sth for $10/£200 etc

▪ Dan bought the car for $2000.

▪ It's much cheaper to buy in bulk (=buy large quantities of something) .

b) [T]

if a sum of money buys something, it is enough to pay for it

▪ $50 doesn't buy much these days.

buy sb sth

▪ $15 should buy us a pizza and a drink.

2.) buy (sb) time

to deliberately make more time for yourself to do something, for example by delaying a decision

▪ 'Can we talk about it later?' he said, trying to buy a little more time.

3.) [T] informal

to believe something that someone tells you, especially when it is not likely to be true

▪ 'Let's just say it was an accident.' ' He'll never buy that .'

4.) [T] informal

to pay money to someone, especially someone in a position of authority, in order to persuade them to do something dishonest

= ↑bribe

▪ People say the judge had been bought by the Mafia.

5.) buy sth at the cost/expense/price of sth

to get something that you want, but only by losing something else

▪ The town has been careful not to buy prosperity at the expense of its character.

6.) sb bought it

old-fashioned informal someone was killed

buy in [buy sth<=>in] phr v

to buy something in large quantities

▪ Companies are buying in supplies of paper, in case the price goes up.

buy into [buy into sth] phr v

1.) informal to accept that an idea is right and allow it to influence you

▪ I never bought into this idea that you have to be thin to be attractive.

2.) to buy part of a business or organization, especially because you want to control it

▪ Investors were invited to buy into state-owned enterprises.

buy off [buy sb<=>off] phr v

to pay someone money to stop them causing trouble or threatening you

= ↑bribe

buy out phr v

1.) buy sb/sth<=>out

to buy someone's share of a business or property that you previously owned together, so that you have complete control

→↑buyout

2.) buy sb out of sth

to pay money so that someone can leave an organization such as the army before their contract has ended

buy up [buy sth<=>up] phr v

to quickly buy as much of something as possible, for example land, tickets, or goods

▪ Much of the land was bought up by property developers.

buy ²

buy² n [C, usually singular]

1.) something that is worth buying, because it is cheap, good quality, or likely to gain in value

a good/excellent etc buy

▪ The wine is a good buy at $6.50.

▪ It's worth shopping around for the best buy (=what you want at the lowest price) .

2.) informal an act of buying something, especially something illegal

= ↑deal