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.
She romantically contends that street food is an “impulse buy – you pass by it, and it smells good, so you buy it to eat quickly.”
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
"If they need it, they will buy it," but otherwise they will wait, or "lower their standards" and buy a less high-performing memory chip, he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
Kimberly-Clark has agreed to buy it for more than $40 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
It said those offers had been worth £6.50, £5.60, £6 and £6.25 a share, and has previously accused Castlelake of trying to buy it "on the cheap".
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
She told him to bring sunscreen and lots of water, so he didn’t have to buy it when he got to the Magic Kingdom.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
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.
