{ or, more fully, or }. (Law) A contract (more fully called contract of hire with an option of purchase) in which a person hires goods for a specified period and at a fixed rent, with the added condition that if he shall retain the goods for the full period and pay all the installments of rent as they become due the contract shall determine and the title vest absolutely in him, and that if he chooses he may at any time during the term surrender the goods and be quit of any liability for future installments upon the contract. In the United States such a contract is generally treated as a conditional sale, and the term hire purchase is also sometimes applied to a contract in which the hirer is not free to avoid future liability by surrender of the goods. In England, however, if the hirer does not have this right the contract is a sale. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

That loves the thing he can not purchase. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Your accent is Something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

His faults . . . hereditary
Rather than purchased. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To obtain by paying money or its equivalent; to buy for a price; as, to purchase land, or a house. [ 1913 Webster ]

The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth. Gen. xxv. 10. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.; as, to purchase favor with flattery. [ 1913 Webster ]

One poor retiring minute . . .
Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

A world who would not purchase with a bruise? Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Law) (a) To acquire by any means except descent or inheritance. Blackstone. (b) To buy for a price. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert one's self. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Duke John of Brabant purchased greatly that the Earl of Flanders should have his daughter in marriage. Ld. Berners. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To acquire wealth or property. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Sure our lawyers
Would not purchase half so fast. J. Webster. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. purchds, F. pourchas eager pursuit. See Purchase, v. t. ] 1. The act of seeking, getting, or obtaining anything. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

I'll . . . get meat to have thee,
Or lose my life in the purchase. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of seeking and acquiring property. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The acquisition of title to, or properly in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent. [ 1913 Webster ]

It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance. Franklin. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. That which is obtained, got, or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition. Chaucer. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

We met with little purchase upon this coast, except two small vessels of Golconda. De Foe. [ 1913 Webster ]

A beauty-waning and distressed widow . . .
Made prize and purchase of his lustful eye. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

A politician, to do great things, looks for a power -- what our workmen call a purchase. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Law) Acquisition of lands or tenements by other means than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

Purchase criminal, robbery. [ Obs. ] Spenser. --
Purchase money, the money paid, or contracted to be paid, for anything bought. Berkeley. --
Worth [ so many ] years' purchase, 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who purchases; one who acquires property for a consideration, generally of money; a buyer; a vendee. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To buy back or again; to regain by purchase. Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of repurchasing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A purchaser who buys from a purchaser; one who buys at second hand. [ 1913 Webster ]

The amount that is yielded by the annual income of property; -- used in expressing the value of a thing in the number of years required for its income to yield its purchase price, in reckoning the amount to be paid for annuities, etc. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]