buy it
Idioms-
Suffer a severe reversal, as in If they can't raise the money in time, they'll buy it . [ Slang ; mid-1900s]
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Be killed; die. For example, By the time we could get to the hospital, he had bought it . Originating during World War I as military slang, this term later was extended to peacetime forms of death. A later slang equivalent is buy the farm , dating from about 1950. For example, He'll soon buy the farm riding that motorcycle . According to J.E. Lighter, it alludes to training flights crashing in a farmer's field, causing the farmer to sue the government for damages sufficient to pay off the farm's mortgage. Since the pilot usually died in such a crash, he in effect bought the farm with his life.
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Believe it; see buy something .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But in those circumstances, short sellers provide dry kindling for a conflagration because when the stock jumps, they race to buy it at any price and return borrowed shares.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026
The group failed to sell the company in 2025 after KKR, a US private equity giant, pulled out of plans to buy it, forcing them to draw up the latest rescue deal.
From BBC • Jun. 16, 2026
“You should buy it because you want and/or need a death benefit that will last your entire life, because first and foremost, this is life insurance.”
From MarketWatch • Jun. 16, 2026
Customers likely were thinking this item might not arrive, rather than “this item is popular, buy it quick,” says Mitrofanov.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
“Did you buy it, or did you fight for it?”
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
