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.
"If I still wanted it, I would buy it, but more often than not I'd find the urge had gone," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Citadel agreed to buy it at a discount.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
"But it's a private sector prescribing, you've got to buy it and you've got to pay for it."
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Fermi wouldn’t be required to commit money or issue debt to build the plant but would have the option to buy it in a decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
As cover, he worked as a janitor in a building where many American embassy officials lived—but apparently the KGB didn’t buy it.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
