Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Purchase \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.