3. The acquisition of title to, or properly in, anything for a price;
buying for money or its equivalent.
It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance.
Franklin.
4. That which is obtained, got, or acquired, in any manner, honestly or
dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition. Chaucer. B. Jonson.
We met with little purchase upon this coast, except two small
vessels of Golconda.
De Foe.
A beauty-waning and distressed widow . . . Made prize and purchase
of his lustful eye.
Shak.
5. That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent. "The
scrip was complete evidence of his right in the purchase." Wheaton.
6. Any mechanical hold, or advantage, applied to the raising or
removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle, capstan, and the
like; also, the apparatus, tackle, or device by which the advantage is
gained.
A politician, to do great things, looks for a power -- what our
workmen call a purchase.
Burke.
7. (Law) Acquisition of lands or tenements by other means than descent
or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement. Blackstone.
Purchase criminal, robbery. [Obs.] Spenser. -- Purchase money, the
money paid, or contracted to be paid, for anything bought. Berkeley. --
Worth, or At, [so many] years' purchase, a phrase by which the value or
cost of a thing is expressed in the length of time required for the
income to amount to the purchasing price; as, he bought the estate at a
twenty years' purchase. To say one's life is not worth a day's purchase
in the same as saying one will not live a day, or is in imminent peril.
Pur"chas*er (?), n. 1. One who purchases; one who acquires property for
a consideration, generally of money; a buyer; a vendee.
2. (Law) One who acquires an estate in lands by his own act or
agreement, or who takes or obtains an estate by any means other than by
descent or inheritance.
Pur"dah (?), n. [Per. parda a curtain.] A curtain or screen; also, a
cotton fabric in blue and white stripes, used for curtains. McElrath.
Pure (?), a. [Compar. Purer (?); superl. Purest.] [OE. pur, F. pur, fr.
L. purus; akin to putus pure, clear, putare to clean, trim, prune, set
in order, settle, reckon, consider, think, Skr. p&?; to clean, and
perh. E. fire. Cf. Putative.] 1. Separate from all heterogeneous or
extraneous matter; free from mixture or combination; clean; mere;
simple; unmixed; as, pure water; pure clay; pure air; pure compassion.
The pure fetters on his shins great.
Chaucer.
A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy.