purchase

Less common meanings

4. 4
   physical gripnounfigurativelyuncountable

   A firm hold or grip that gives leverage, as for lifting or moving something heavy or for climbing.

   The lever gave the workers enough purchase to shift the boulder.

   He searched for some purchase on the crate before heaving it onto the truck.

   UsageOften get, find or have purchase on something. A purchase is also possible: get a purchase on the rock.

   Note

   Before a lever can lift anything it needs something to bite on, and that bite is the meaning here. It travels easily into argument. Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism (2009) says ethical models "have little purchase on" corporations, meaning they cannot take hold. Grip and hold are close synonyms, but purchase keeps the idea of leverage.

   The new policy has little purchase on how people actually behave.

   Her argument never found purchase with the committee.

5. 5
   influencenoununcountable

   A degree of influence or a foothold that enables an idea or person to make an impact or win acceptance.

   Conspiracy theories have gained purchase among people who already distrust official sources.

   As a newcomer, the senator struggled to find any purchase in the party's debates over the budget.

   UsageUsually after gain, find or have, often with little: ideas gain purchase among voters. Nothing is bought.

   Similartraction, foothold, influence

   Note

   It borrows the picture of a firm physical hold: an idea that gains purchase has found something to grip, the way a boot does on rock.

6. 6
   what money getsverbtransitive

   Of money or another payment: to have the buying power to obtain something, or a given amount of it.

   A few dollars purchase far more in rural markets than in the city.

   Today the same wage purchases only a fraction of what it once did.

   Similarbuy

   Note

   The thing paid becomes the subject: money, treasure or a wage does the purchasing, and the buyer drops out of view. Refugees' portable treasures "purchased their safe passage," as if the jewels themselves struck the bargain. It is the natural verb for comparing what money is worth from one market or decade to the next: a dollar purchases more here than there. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • The quoted wording about refugees' portable treasures appears in Wiktionary's illustrative example of this meaning. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   land (law)noundatedcountable or uncountable

   In law, the acquisition of land or tenements by one's own act or agreement, as distinct from descent or inheritance.

   Under the old law, title taken by purchase carried different duties than land received by descent.

   Old property records note whether each parcel was acquired by purchase or passed down by descent.

   Oppositedescent, inheritance

   Note

   Old common law sorted land by how it reached its holder: by descent, through inheritance, or by purchase, through the holder's own act or agreement. Money need not change hands, and a gift or grant counted as purchase too. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769) sets out how an estate acquired by descent differs in effect from one acquired by purchase. In old deeds, read "by purchase" as "not inherited," not "bought." Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • English common law distinguished acquisition by descent from acquisition by one's own act or agreement, called purchase. gutenberg.org
   • Legal purchase did not require payment and included gifts and grants. avalon.law.yale.edu
   • William Blackstone wrote Commentaries on the Laws of England, first published across 1765–1769. en.wikipedia.org
   • The original publication sequence ended in 1769. en.wikipedia.org
   • Blackstone explains differences in legal effect between estates acquired by descent and by purchase. avalon.law.yale.edu
   • In this historical legal sense, 'by purchase' means acquisition otherwise than by inheritance. gutenberg.org
8. 8
   win by effortverbtransitive

   To gain or win something through effort, hardship or sacrifice rather than money.

   He sought to purchase influence through years of loyal service.

   Bold deeds purchase a reputation that words alone cannot.

   Note

   Spenser and Shakespeare use the word in the sense its origin promised: the Anglo-Norman "seek to obtain" behind the obsolete noun of pursuit. Nothing need be paid. In As You Like It, an accent is "finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling." In Antony and Cleopatra, faults are "hereditary rather than purchased": inborn versus acquired, the same split the old law drew between descent and purchase. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

   • Edmund Spenser uses purchase to mean obtaining something without necessarily buying it. en.wikisource.org
   • Purchase derives through Middle English from Anglo-Norman purchacer, meaning seek to obtain. en.wiktionary.org
   • Purchase has an obsolete noun sense involving seeking or pursuit. en.wiktionary.org
   • Payment is unnecessary in the acquisition sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Orlando speaks the quoted words about Rosalind's accent. folger.edu
   • In Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Lepidus describes Antony's faults as hereditary rather than purchased, contrasting innate traits with acquired ones. folger.edu
   • Historical English property law distinguished acquisition by descent from acquisition by purchase. avalon.law.yale.edu
9. 9
   nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

   The process of going after something, such as property, and acquiring it.

   Note

   Here the pursuit is the point, as the word's origin promises: Anglo-Norman purchacer, "seek to obtain", built on chacier, "to chase". In John Fletcher's Bonduca (c. 1613), a speaker is ready to "lose my life i' th' purchase", which means dying in the getting, not the paying.

10. 10
    noun

    The tackle or device (such as a pulley or block and tackle) by which mechanical advantage is gained; in nautical use, the ratio of advantage the device provides.
11. 11
    verb

    To raise or move something by mechanical means, applying a lever, tackle, or similar device to gain advantage.
12. 12
    noun

    The price paid for a house or estate, calculated as its annual rent or income multiplied over a stated number of years.
13. 13
    nounarchaic

    Something obtained or acquired by any means, fair or foul; property, possession, or gains.
14. 14
    verbobsolete

    To exert oneself or strive in order to obtain something.
15. 15
    verbobsolete

    To atone for an offense by paying a fine or suffering a forfeit.

    Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.

    c. 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”