Purchase Meaning
/ˈpɜːtʃɪs/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
nounThat which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.
Sentence Examples
We will purchase a new car next week.
I would like to purchase your latest mail order catalogue.
Please ensure that you purchase your ticket in advance.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
She decided to ____ a new laptop after her old one broke down completely.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She saved for six months before she had enough money to ____ the laptop she needed for work.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[Said by a shopkeeper] I really don't think you can carry any more purchases. You can come again after you sell something, or you can simply discard an item to lighten your load. Or, you might want to sell the things you don't need here!"
— 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:
"I'll […] get meat to save thee, / Or lose my life i’ th’ purchase."
— c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii:
"Suppose a freehold house to be worth 20 years’ purchase […]"
— 1848, The Sessional Papers printed by order of the House of Lords:
"The problem is that the model of individual responsibility assumed by most versions of ethics have little purchase on the behavior of Capital or corporations."
— 2009, Mark Fisher, chapter 8, in Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, →ISBN, pages 66–67:
"He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure.""
— 1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She decided to ____ a new laptop after her old one broke down completely.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She saved for six months before she had enough money to ____ the laptop she needed for work.