buy

buy1 [ baı ] (past tense and past participle bought [ bɔt ] ) verb ***

1. ) intransitive or transitive to get something by paying money for it:

I need to buy some new clothes.

Now you can buy and sell shares on the Internet.

Tickets can be bought at the door.

A lot of people just come into the shop without buying.

buy something from someone/something: I bought a ball from the toy store.

buy something off someone: I said I'd buy his bike off him.

buy someone something: He's always buying me presents.

buy something for someone: Ed's parents bought that new computer for him.

buy something for $50/$60 etc.: They offered to buy the car for $4,000.

buy (something) in bulk: This dog food is cheaper when you buy it in bulk.

─ opposite SELL

a ) transitive if an amount of money buys something, it is large enough to pay for that thing:

$10 million would buy you a nice house in Malibu.

the best education money can buy

b ) buy or buy off transitive usually passive INFORMAL to give someone something so that they will do something dishonest for you: BRIBE:

It's nice to know that some people can't be bought.

2. ) transitive to get something you want or need, usually by losing something else that is important:

buy something with something: attempts to buy peace with land

buy something at the expense/cost of something: Increased profits would be bought at the expense of paying less attention to quality.

3. ) transitive to do something in order to get more time to do or finish something else:

a move that should buy us another week

buy time: Many feel that these latest negotiations are all part of a rebel plot to buy time to try to win more support.

4. ) transitive SPOKEN to believe or accept something, especially something that is unlikely to be true or reasonable:

It's her birthday, but I told her I had to work late. She'll never buy that!

(have) bought it INFORMAL

to have been killed:

Sam nearly bought it in that car accident.

,buy `in phrasal verb transitive BRITISH

to buy a large quantity of something:

Supermarkets have been buying in champagne for Christmas.

`buy into phrasal verb transitive buy into something

1. ) to buy part of a business, especially in order to get control of it:

Moves to buy into other companies have failed.

2. ) INFORMAL to start to do something that a lot of other people are doing, or to believe something that a lot of other people believe:

You don't buy into all this garbage, do you?

,buy `off phrasal verb transitive INFORMAL

1. ) same as BUY1 1B:

Efforts to buy her off have failed.

2. ) to pay someone to stop threatening you or BLACKMAILING you

,buy `out phrasal verb transitive

1. ) to pay money to your business partner so that you can control all of a business you previously owned together:

The board members have offered to buy me out.

2. ) buy someone out BRITISH to pay money so that someone can leave an organization, especially the military, before the time that they had originally agreed:

buy out of: He bought himself out of the army.

buy out someone's contract AMERICAN

to pay a person or organization the rest of an amount of money that has been promised in a contract so that someone can leave or be forced to leave their job early

,buy `up phrasal verb transitive

to buy large amounts of something or all of it that is available:

Developers have been buying up old factories and converting them into luxury apartments.

buy

buy 2 [ baı ] noun count

something that you buy:

Check out our fantastic bargain buys in the January sale!

a good/bad etc. buy (=something that is worth/not worth the amount of money you paid for it): That shirt was a really great buy.