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price

[prahys]
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noun
  1. the sum or amount of money or its equivalent for which anything is bought, sold, or offered for sale.
  2. a sum offered for the capture of a person alive or dead: The authorities put a price on his head.
  3. the sum of money, or other consideration, for which a person's support, consent, etc., may be obtained, especially in cases involving sacrifice of integrity: They claimed that every politician has a price.
  4. that which must be given, done, or undergone in order to obtain a thing: He gained the victory, but at a heavy price.
  5. odds(def 2).
  6. Archaic. value or worth.
  7. Archaic. great value or worth (usually preceded by of).
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verb (used with object), priced, pric·ing.
  1. to fix the price of.
  2. to ask or determine the price of: We spent the day pricing furniture at various stores.
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Idioms
  1. at any price, at any cost, no matter how great: Their orders were to capture the town at any price.
  2. beyond/without price, of incalculable value; priceless: The crown jewels are beyond price.
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Origin of price

1175–1225; (noun) Middle English pris(e) < Old French < Latin pretium price, value, worth (cf. precious); (v.) late Middle English prisen < Middle French prisier, derivative of pris, Old French as above; see prize2, praise
Related formsprice·a·ble, adjectivepre·price, verb (used with object), pre·priced, pre·pric·ing; nounre·price, verb, re·priced, re·pric·ing.well-priced, adjective

Synonyms

See more synonyms for price on Thesaurus.com
1, 4. Price, charge, cost, expense refer to outlay or expenditure required in buying or maintaining something. Price is used mainly of single, concrete objects offered for sale; charge, of services: What is the price of that coat? There is a small charge for mailing packages. Cost is mainly a purely objective term, often used in financial calculations: The cost of building a new annex was estimated at $10,000. Expense suggests cost plus incidental expenditure: The expense of the journey was more than the contemplated cost. Only charge is not used figuratively. Price, cost, and sometimes expense may be used to refer to the expenditure of mental energy, what one “pays” in anxiety, suffering, etc.

Price

[prahys]
noun
  1. Bruce,1845–1903, U.S. architect.
  2. (Edward) Reynolds,1933–2011, U.S. novelist.
  3. (Mary) Le·on·tyne [lee-uh n-teen] /ˈli ənˌtin/, born 1927, U.S. soprano.
  4. a male given name.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

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British Dictionary definitions for price

price

noun
  1. the sum in money or goods for which anything is or may be bought or sold
  2. the cost at which anything is obtained
  3. the cost of bribing a person
  4. a sum of money offered or given as a reward for a capture or killing
  5. value or worth, esp high worth
  6. gambling another word for odds
  7. at any price whatever the price or cost
  8. at a price at a high price
  9. beyond price or without price invaluable or priceless
  10. the price of someone Irish what someone deserves, esp a fitting punishmentit's just the price of him
  11. what price something? what are the chances of something happening now?
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verb (tr)
  1. to fix or establish the price of
  2. to ascertain or discover the price of
  3. price out of the market to charge so highly for as to prevent the sale, hire, etc, of
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Derived Formspricer, noun

Word Origin

C13 pris, from Old French, from Latin pretium price, value, wage
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

Word Origin and History for price

n.

c.1200, pris "value, worth; praise," later "cost, recompense, prize" (mid-13c.), from Old French pris "price, value, wages, reward," also "honor, fame, praise, prize" (Modern French prix), from Late Latin precium, from Latin pretium "reward, prize, value, worth," from PIE *pret-yo-, from root *per- (5) "to traffic in, to sell" (cf. Sanskrit aprata "without recompense, gratuitously;" Greek porne "prostitute," originally "bought, purchased," pernanai "to sell;" Lithuanian perku "I buy").

Praise, price, and prize began to diverge in Old French, with praise emerging in Middle English by early 14c. and prize being evident by late 1500s with the rise of the -z- spelling. Having shed the extra Old French and Middle English senses, the word now again has the base sense of the Latin original. To set (or put) a price on someone, "offer a reward for capture" is from 1766.

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v.

"to set the price of," late 14c., from price (n.) or from Old French prisier, variant of preisier "to value, estimate; to praise." Related: Priced; pricing.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with price

price

In addition to the idioms beginning with price

  • price is right, the
  • price on one's head
  • price out of the market

also see:

  • at all costs (at any price)
  • cheap at twice the price
  • every man has his price
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.