\Pur"chase\ (?; 48), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Purchased};
p. pr. & vb. n. {Purchasing}.] [OE. purchasen, porchacen, OF.
porchacier, purchacier, to pursue, to seek eagerly, F.
pourchasser; OF. pour, por, pur, for (L. pro) + chacier to
pursue, to chase. See {Chase}.]
1. To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain,
   obtain, or acquire. --Chaucer.
         That loves the thing he can not purchase. --Spenser.
         Your accent is Something finer than you could
         purchase in so removed a dwelling.    --Shak.
         His faults . . . hereditary Rather than purchased.
                                               --Shak.
2. To obtain by paying money or its equivalent; to buy for a
   price; as, to purchase land, or a house.
         The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of
         Heth.                                 --Gen. xxv.
                                               10.
3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or
   sacrifice, etc.; as, to purchase favor with flattery.
         One poor retiring minute . . . Would purchase thee a
         thousand thousand friends.            --Shak.
         A world who would not purchase with a bruise?
                                               --Milton.
4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit. [Obs.]
         Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
                                               --Shak.
5. (Law)
   (a) To acquire by any means except descent or inheritance.
       --Blackstone.
   (b) To buy for a price.
6. To apply to (anything) a device for obtaining a mechanical
   advantage; to get a purchase upon, or apply a purchase to;
   as, to purchase a cannon.

\Pur"chase\, v. i.
1. To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to
   exert one's self. [Obs.]
         Duke John of Brabant purchased greatly that the Earl
         of Flanders should have his daughter in marriage.
                                               --Ld. Berners.
2. To acquire wealth or property. [Obs.]
         Sure our lawyers Would not purchase half so fast.
                                               --J. Webster.

\Pur"chase\ (?; 48), n. [OE. purchds, F. pourchas eager
pursuit. See {Purchase}, v. t.]
1. The act of seeking, getting, or obtaining anything. [Obs.]
         I'll . . . get meat to have thee, Or lose my life in
         the purchase.                         --Beau. & Fl.
2. The act of seeking and acquiring property.
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.