buying

Pluralbuyings

1. 1
   purchasingverb

   Present participle of buy.

   The company is buying smaller firms to expand its reach.

   Investors are buying shares before prices climb any higher.

   UsageIts past forms are both bought: she bought, she has bought (not incorrect: buyed).

   Note

   The -ing form carries every meaning of the verb, from paying for groceries to believing a story: "I'm not buying that excuse" is the informal sense at work.

2. 2
   act of purchasenouncountable or uncountable

   The act of acquiring goods or services by paying for them.

   Buying on credit can lead to mounting debt over time.

   Impulse buying often leaves shoppers with things they never needed.

   UsageUsually names the activity in general, often after another noun: impulse buying, panic buying.

   Similarpurchasing, shopping, spending

   Oppositeselling

   Note

   Most often it names the activity as a whole: impulse buying, or the seasonal "spring buying" of Norman Lindsay's Redheap (1930). It also takes a plural, as in the old commercial pairing "buyings and sellings" in A General Discourse of Commerce (1707). Lindsay's Dust or Polish? (1950) stretches it further with "paying for these buyings", where the word means the things bought rather than the act of buying them. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Norman Lindsay wrote Redheap, first published in 1930. en.wikipedia.org
   • Redheap contains the phrase spring buying. en.wiktionary.org
   • A General Discourse of Commerce dates to 1707 and contains the pairing buyings and sellings. en.wiktionary.org
   • Norman Lindsay wrote Dust or Polish?, published in 1950. en.wikipedia.org
   • Dust or Polish? contains paying for these buyings, with buyings referring to purchased objects, as their cartage indicates. en.wiktionary.org

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