Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Buy off   /baɪ ɔf/   Listen
verb
Buy  v. t.  (past & past part. bought; pres. part. buying)  
1.
To acquire the ownership of (property) by giving an accepted price or consideration therefor, or by agreeing to do so; to acquire by the payment of a price or value; to purchase; opposed to sell. "Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou wilt sell thy necessaries."
2.
To acquire or procure by something given or done in exchange, literally or figuratively; to get, at a cost or sacrifice; to buy pleasure with pain. "Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding."
To buy again. See Againbuy. (Obs.)
To buy off.
(a)
To influence to compliance; to cause to bend or yield by some consideration; as, to buy off conscience.
(b)
To detach by a consideration given; as, to buy off one from a party.
To buy out
(a)
To buy off, or detach from.
(b)
To purchase the share or shares of in a stock, fund, or partnership, by which the seller is separated from the company, and the purchaser takes his place; as, A buys out B.
(c)
To purchase the entire stock in trade and the good will of a business.
To buy in, to purchase stock in any fund or partnership.
To buy on credit, to purchase, on a promise, in fact or in law, to make payment at a future day.
To buy the refusal (of anything), to give a consideration for the right of purchasing, at a fixed price, at a future time.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Buy off" Quotes from Famous Books



... groped back to the first conception he had had of this woman—the woman who tricked married men, who used scented note-paper, who interpreted thoughts before they were uttered and forestalled actions before they had been planned—the woman whom he had been instructed to buy off with a price. What was he doing discussing his love-affair with ...
— The Kingdom Round the Corner - A Novel • Coningsby Dawson
... Parliament, the manner of raising the L1,800,000 they voted [the King] on Friday; and at last, after many proposals, one moved that the Chimney-money might be taken from the King, and an equal revenue of something else might be found for the King, and people be enjoyned to buy off this tax of Chimney-money for ever at eight years' purchase, which will raise present money, as they think, L1,600,000, and the State be eased of an ill burthen and the King be supplied of something as food or better for his use. The House seems ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... him the best he could, and desired my Lord to give him leave to go to London, where he would make or mar, which was always his common saying." His plan was to purchase not only his master's safety but his own. Wolsey was persuaded to buy off the hostility of the courtiers by giving his personal confirmation to the prodigal grants of pensions and annuities which had been already made from his revenues, while Cromwell acquired importance as the go-between in these ...
— History of the English People, Volume III (of 8) - The Parliament, 1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540 • John Richard Green
... the Romans although expecting succour from Veii and from Camillus, nevertheless, being straitened by famine, entered into an agreement to buy off the Gauls with gold But at the very moment when, in pursuance of this agreement, the gold was being weighed out, Camillus came up with his army. This, says our historian, was contrived by Fortune, "that the Romans might not live thereafter as men ransomed for a price," and the ...
— Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius • Niccolo Machiavelli
... state. And the little buffer state began to be very wise and politic and energetic. It said, 'If we don't begin to take active measures, the Assyrian, or the Egyptian, whoever gets here first, will eat us up. But if we buy off the one, he will protect ...
— The Street Called Straight • Basil King


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com