bought

SayBAWTUS/bɔt/UK/bɔːt/

Noun pluralboughts

7 meanings of bought

1
verb
Simple past and past participle of buy.
He bought the house after years of saving.
The company bought its main competitor last spring.
Note
One irregular form does double duty for buy: she bought it yesterday, it was bought last week, they have bought nothing since. It carries every meaning of buy, so it can mean bribed (the votes were bought) or, informally, believed (nobody bought his excuse). The bribery meaning settled into the adjective for corrupt officials.
2
adjectivecolloquial
Compromised by money from special interests, and therefore corrupt.
Critics claimed the senator was bought and would never vote against the oil lobby.
Everyone in town knew the bought judge would rule for the developer.
Similarcorrupt, venal, crooked
Oppositeincorruptible, honest, clean
Note
A political accusation more than a neutral description: to call senators or regulators bought is to say their decisions have a price. It is informal and usually follows a verb, as in the regulators are bought or the leadership is bought. It is sharper than corrupt because it names how the corruption works, through money from special interests.
3
nounobsolete
A place where a river, a mountain chain, or another landform curves or bends.
A village sat in the sheltered bought where the stream doubled back on itself.
the river it selfe turneth North east and is stil a navigable streame. On the westerne side of this bought is Tauxenent with 40 men.
1612, John Smith, Map of Virginia
Note
An explorer's and mapmaker's word. In his Map of Virginia (1612), John Smith follows a river as it "turneth North east" and places a settlement "on the westerne side of this bought." Bight still names a bend of coast or river, but bought in this sense is obsolete. For modern description, bend or loop is the safe choice.

4
nounobsolete
A curved or hollow place on the body of a person or animal, such as the inside of the elbow.
She tucked the letter into the bought of her elbow as she walked.
The hound lay curled, its nose resting in the bought of its own flank.
Note
The body's own curves, such as the crook of an elbow or the hollow of a flank, once took the same noun as the general word for a bend. The usage is obsolete. Today crook, hollow or bend does this work, and bought in this sense belongs only to older writing.
5
nounobsolete
A fold, bend, or coil in a tail, a snake's body, or a similar curving part.
Her huge long taile her den all ouerspred, / Yet was in knots and many boughtes vpwound, / Pointed with mortall sting.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Note
A poet's word for coils. In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590), a huge tail spreads over a den, "in knots and many boughtes vpwound," and the plural pictures loop laid upon loop. The usage is obsolete. Coil or fold is the modern equivalent, and bought survives only when quoting or imitating early modern verse.
6
nounobsolete
A curved or bent part of something, or an inward angle.
The carpenter cut a gentle bought into the edge of the railing.
Dust gathered in the bought of the old stone staircase.
Note
A different word altogether that only looks like the past of buy. It comes from Middle English bought, probably bight reshaped under the influence of bowen, "to bow, bend", and its cousins are Scots boucht and bout. Unlike any verb form, it takes a plural, boughts. It is obsolete now, and modern writing uses bend or bight instead.
7
nounobsolete
The part of a sling that holds the stone before it is thrown.
He fitted a heavy pebble into the bought and began to whirl the cords.
The leather bought had stretched too loose to grip a round stone.
Note
Here the bend is a working part. The pouch of a sling sags into a hollow that holds the stone, so the same word for a curve served to name it. The usage is obsolete, and modern descriptions of slings call this part the pouch.

bought is a form of buy

buy, verb: To get something by paying money for it, including paying for something such as a drink or meal for someone else. Full entry

Forms: buybuys he/she/itbuying -ing formbought past tense, past participle
Spelling: buy → bought: irregular (no -ed)

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Origin

This comes from Middle English bought (also bowght, bouȝt), probably an alteration of bight ("bend, bight") shaped by bowen, buwen, buȝen ("to bow, bend"). It is related to Scots boucht, bucht, bout ("bend").