Library / English Dictionary

BUY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An advantageous purchase

Example:

the stock was a real buy at that price

Synonyms:

bargain; buy; steal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("buy" is a kind of...):

purchase (something acquired by purchase)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buy"):

song (a very small sum)

travel bargain (a bargain rate for travellers on commercial routes (usually air routes))

Derivation:

buy (obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction)

buy (be worth or be capable of buying)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Accept as true

Example:

I can't buy this story

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "buy" is one way to...):

believe (accept as true; take to be true)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They won't buy the story

Sense 2

Meaning:

Obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction

Example:

She buys for the big department store

Synonyms:

buy; purchase

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "buy" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

"Buy" entails doing...:

pay (give money, usually in exchange for goods or services)

choose; pick out; select; take (pick out, select, or choose from a number of alternatives)

Verb group:

buy (be worth or be capable of buying)

Domain category:

commerce; commercialism; mercantilism (transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "buy"):

buy back; repurchase (buy what had previously been sold, lost, or given away)

take (buy, select)

get (purchase)

subscribe; subscribe to; take (receive or obtain regularly)

buy out; buy up; take over (take over ownership of; of corporations and companies)

pick up (buy casually or spontaneously)

buy food; take out (purchase prepared food to be eaten at home)

impulse-buy (buy on impulse without proper reflection)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Sentence example:

The children buy the ball

Antonym:

sell (exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent)

Also:

buy in (amass so as to keep for future use or sale or for a particular occasion or use)

buy out; buy up (take over ownership of; of corporations and companies)

Derivation:

buy (an advantageous purchase)

buyer (a person who buys)

buying (the act of buying)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Acquire by trade or sacrifice or exchange

Example:

She wanted to buy his love with her dedication to him and his work

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "buy" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make illegal payments to in exchange for favors or influence

Example:

This judge can be bought

Synonyms:

bribe; buy; corrupt; grease one's palms

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "buy" is one way to...):

pay (give money, usually in exchange for goods or services)

Domain category:

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "buy"):

sop (give a conciliatory gift or bribe to)

buy off; pay off (pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot buy Sue

Sense 5

Meaning:

Be worth or be capable of buying

Example:

This sum will buy you a ride on the train

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "buy" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Verb group:

buy; purchase (obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

buy (an advantageous purchase)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Europe has enforced capping regulations and the World Bank has proposed a ‘user fee’ to be imposed on those buying antibiotics for farm animals.

(Eat less meat to cut drug resistance, SciDev.Net)

At one place a man was selling green lemonade, and when the children bought it Dorothy could see that they paid for it with green pennies.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

He has been buying things for children, you perceive.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And then you have added so much to it yourself, you are always buying books.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

After that he travelled for some years, and finally he bought a small place called Woodman’s Lee, near Forest Row, in Sussex.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have heard my sister say so forty times, when she has been extravagant in buying more than she wanted, or careless in cutting it to pieces.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Once a begging friar came limping along in a brown habit, imploring in a most dolorous voice to give him a single groat to buy bread wherewith to save himself from impending death.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had bought a lamp which was the duplicate of the one which had burned in the room of Mortimer Tregennis on the morning of the tragedy.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

William had wanted to buy her a gold chain too, but the purchase had been beyond his means, and therefore not to wear the cross might be mortifying him.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever in his dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)