Dictionary.com
QUIZ
THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?
Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.
Question 1 of 7
In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

Idioms about buy

    buy it, Slang. to get killed: He bought it at Dunkirk.

Origin of buy

before 1000; Middle English byen, variant of byggen, buggen,Old English bycgan; cognate with Old Saxon buggjan,Gothic bugjan to buy, Old Norse byggja to lend, rent

synonym study for buy

1. Buy, purchase imply obtaining or acquiring property or goods for a price. Buy is the common and informal word, applying to any such transaction: to buy a house, vegetables at the market. Purchase is more formal and may connote buying on a larger scale, in a finer store, and the like: to purchase a year's supplies.

OTHER WORDS FROM buy

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH buy

buy , by, bye
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use buy in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for buy

buy
/ (baɪ) /

verb buys, buying or bought (mainly tr)
noun
a purchase (often in the phrases good or bad buy)

Word Origin for buy

Old English bycgan; related to Old Norse byggja to let out, lend, Gothic bugjan to buy

usage for buy

The use of off after buy as in I bought this off my neighbour was formerly considered incorrect, but is now acceptable in informal contexts
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
FEEDBACK