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Definition of "buy" []

  • To acquire in exchange for money or its equivalent; purchase. See Regional Note at boughten. (verb-transitive)
  • To be capable of purchasing: "Certainly there are lots of things in life that money won't buy” ( Ogden Nash). (verb-transitive)
  • To acquire by sacrifice, exchange, or trade: wanted to buy love with gifts. (verb-transitive)
  • To bribe: tried to buy a judge. (verb-transitive)
  • Informal To accept the truth or feasibility of: The officer didn't buy my lame excuse for speeding. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "buy" in a sentence
  • "If you haven't gotten ten to at least say they'll buy, where do you get your hubris to proclaim that thousands actually will buy?"
  • "Whandall understood that the word buy was an insult."
  • "He said media reports wrongly characterize what he called "buy and sell" shops as pawnshops in stories about police raids."