Meaning of buy in English

buy

verb

/baɪ/ us

/baɪ/

bought | bought

buy verb (PAY FOR)

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A1 [ I or T ]

to get something by paying money for it:

Eventually she had saved enough money to buy a small car.

[ + two objects ] He bought his mother some flowers/He bought some flowers for his mother.

There are more people buying at this time of the year so prices are high.

The company was set up to buy and sell shares on behalf of investors.

I bought my camera from a friend of mine.

Synonyms

acquire
pick something up (BUY)
purchase  formal
snap something up informal

Thesaurus: synonymsantonymsand examples

to buy something

buyI need to buy some new shoes.
getI need to go to the supermarket and get some bread.
purchaseShe purchased a new computer.
pick something upCan you just pop in the shop and pick up some eggs?

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to pay someone so that they do what you want or do not cause you any trouble:

He claimed that the judges concerned had been bought.

It shouldn't be possible to buy a Senator to vote on issues that are important to you.

buy someone's silence

to pay someone or do something for someoneso that that person does not tell anyone something that they know about and that you want to remain secret:

What will we have to do to buy her silence?

More examplesFewer examples

I'll buy some paperbacks at the airport.
We stopped at some nearby shops to buy some food.
They took out a £40,000 mortgage to buy the house.
I bought a cheese roll for lunch.
She buys all the latest fashion magazines.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Buying

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You can also find related wordsphrasesand synonyms in the topics:

Fraud & corruption

buy verb (BELIEVE)

[ T ] informal

to believe that something is true:

She'll never buy that story about you getting lost!

Thesaurus: synonymsantonymsand examples

to believe someone or something

believeCan we believe a word of what this man says?
acceptMost people accept what the newspapers say as being correct.
creditUK It’s hard to credit that she’s 87.
swallowI personally find it hard to swallow the official narrative.
buyWhen it comes to global warminghe doesn't buy itand is out to discredit the whole theory.

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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Believing

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Idioms

buy the farm
buy time
someone has bought it

Phrasal verbs

buy something in
buy into something
buy someone off
buy someone out
buy yourself out
buy something up

buy

noun

/baɪ/ us

/baɪ/

a good/bad buy

to be worth/not be worth the price:

This jacket is a really good buyat £200.

(Definition of buy from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

buy | American Dictionary

buy

verb [ T ]

/bɑɪ/

past tense and past participle bought us/bɔt/

buy verb [T] (PAY FOR)

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to obtain something by paying money for it:

She was saving to buy a car.

He bought some flowers for his girlfriend.

buy verb [T] (BELIEVE)

infml

to believe that something is true:

She’ll never buy that story about having to take care of your sick grandmother.

Idiom

buy time

Phrasal verbs

buy into something
buy off someone
buy out someone
buy up something

buy

noun [ C ]

/bɑɪ/

buy noun [C] (ACT OF BUYING)

an occasion in which you pay less for something than what it is worthand are therefore pleased:

The rug turned out to be quite a buy.

(Definition of buy from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

buy | Business English

buy

verb

/baɪ/ us

bought | bought

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[ I or T ]

to get something by paying money for it:

Most people who move into a new house are going to buy things.

There are more people buying at this time of the year so prices are high.

The company was set up to buy and sell shares on behalf of investors.

buy sth from sb We always buy paper from the same supplier.

buy sth for sb/sth Customers may be buying mobile phones for their children.

buy sb sth I offered to buy him lunch.

The firm buys in bulk and negotiates substantial discounts.

[ T ] COMMERCEFINANCE

to be enough money to get something:

A country where the pound buys almost 30% more than it did a year ago will attract British tourists.

buy sb sth A few dollars will buy you a book that holds the experience of a lifetime.

Phrasal verbs

buy into sth
buy sth/sb out
buy up sth

buy

noun [ C ]

/baɪ/ us

something worth the price asked or paid for it:

The shares look undervalued and are a good buy.

This car was a real buy for $4000.

Examples of buy

buy

In this new luxury market paradigm a great number of people can buy luxury goods.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This ensures local stakeholder buy-in and that we do not invest in technology that is unlikely to be adopted.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The labourers could not buy these products at farm-gate prices.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Indeedone referred to buying whole collections as part of his collection building process.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Consider the example of an electronic shopping mallwhere consumers can buy various goods in different shops.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

For some cities with water connectionshouseholds take a variety of defensive actionssuch as buying bottled water and using electronic filter systems.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It is expressly designed for photocopyinghoweverso there is no need to buy pupil sets.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Many of those who bought such private pensions have since been found to have been wrongly advised.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Some books may have been bought for display alone.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These bids flowed down the chain from customer to supplier until most of the buy bids had filtered to the sellers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As was mentioned earliernewcomers who buy supplemental insurance must bear a waiting periodwhich is expected to discourage moves.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Money that had been spent on television and radio advertising was diverted to buy space in the print and outdoor media.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moreoverhis ' simplification ' of the number of prosodic layers buys him little in terms of elegance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After buying a ticketvisitors are guided to the leftdescending steps before they set out across the open landscape.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Every midday there was a long queue of people waiting to buy the excellent valuehomemade food.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of buy

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of buy?