| 释义 |
▪ I. buy, v.|baɪ|
Forms: 1 bycᵹan, -can, (bicᵹan), 2–5 buggen, biggen, bugge, bigge, 4 byȝe, 4–5 bygge(n, begge(n), 5 byche. Also 3 biȝen, 3–7 buye, 3–5 bien, 3–6 bie, 4–5 byen, 4–6 bye, by, (4 byi, biy, bii, bij, bi, byȝe, biȝe, byye, 4–5 be, 5 byin, -yn), 5 beye(n, bey, 6–7 buie, 7– buy; 3rd sing. 1 byȝ(e)þ, 2 bihð, 3 bu(e)ð, 4 (Ayenb.) bayþ, buyeþ, 5 bieth.
imp. 1 byᵹe, 3 bu(e), 4 bye, by, pl. 1 bycᵹað.
pa. tense 1–3 bohte, (2–3 bouchte), 3–4 bouhte, 3–5 boȝte, bouȝte, (3 bochte), 4 boȝt, (bohut), 4–5 bouȝt, boght, boughte, (5 bout), 5– bought, Sc. bocht, (6 bowth).
pa. pple. 1 (ᵹe)boht, 2 iboht, 3 boht, 3–4 bohut, (i-, y-)bouȝt, 3–4, 7 boght, 3–5 boȝt, 4 yboht, bowght, (bout), 4–5 boghte, boȝte, (y-)bouȝte, (5 ybouȝht), 5–6 boughte, (6 bouht, bowte, beyght), 5– bought, Sc. bocht.
[OE. bycᵹ(e)an, bohte, ᵹeboht, corresp. to OS. buggjan, *bohta, giboht, Goth. bugjan, bauhta, bauhts; of unknown origin, not found outside Teut., and not to be connected, so far as can be seen, with the stem bug- bow. The inflexion was imper. byᵹe, bycᵹað; ind. pres. bycᵹe, byᵹest, byᵹeþ, pl. bycᵹað; subj. pres. bycᵹe, bycᵹen; whence ME. s.w. buye, buggeþ; bugge, buyest, buyeþ, buggeþ; bugge, -en; levelled before 1500 to buy- all through, whence the modern spelling. The forms in begge, bey- were Kentish; bigge, bie, by, midland and north.; in the latter the levelling to bie, by, took place as early as 1300. Cf. the comp. aby, abye.
In the pa. tense of this vb., the terminations were added without connecting vowel: WGer. boh-ta has the regular OTeut. o for u before an a- vowel, as in worhta, from wurkjan, OE. wyrcan to work.]
I.
1. a. trans. To get possession of by giving an equivalent, usually in money; to obtain by paying a price; to purchase. (Correlative to sell.) Const. of, from, † at (the seller), for, with (the price).
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvii. 7 Þa ᵹebohten hiᵹ ænne æcyr, mid þam feo. Ibid. John iv. 8 His leorning-cnihtas ferdon þa to þære ceastre woldon him mete bicᵹan. 1154O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1137 Þe Judeus of Noruuic bohten an Christen cild. a1240Ureisun in Cott. Hom. 185 Nis he fol chapmon þe buþ deore a wac þing. 1297R. Glouc. 390 Bu a peyre [hose] of a marc. a1300Cursor M. 4764 Þai moght noght find to bi þam bred. 1340Ayenb. 36 To begge..corn..lesse be þe haluedele, þanne hit his worþ. c1380Wyclif Serm. lviii. Sel. Wks. I. 177 Men shulden not bie þis office. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. ix. 304 Ich haue no peny..polettes for to bigge. c1400Mandeville ii. 12 A kyng of Fraunce boughte theise Relikes..of the Jewes. c1400Apol. Loll. 9 Wan I by meit for money, I selle þe money þat þe toþer man bieth. c1420Pallad i. 1065 To bey thi been [i.e. bees] beholde hem riche and fulle. c1430Freemasonry 358 Pay wele every mon algate, That thou hast ybowȝht any vytayles ate. c1440Agnes Paston in Lett. xxv. I. 39 Gif ye wolde byin her a goune. c1449Pecock Repr. 493 It was not leeful that men ete fleisch which was offrid to idols neither bigge thilk fleisch. 1476Plumpton Corr. 37 Under a hundred shillings I can by non. 1502–3in Comm.-Place Bk. 15th Cent. (1886) 173 Item bowte of Roger Cawthaw..v cumbe berly. 1545Brinklow Lament. (1874) 99 No man will bye their ware any more. 1580Baret Alv. B 1000 Be the price neuer so great it is well bought that a man must needes haue. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 56, I bought him in Paules, and hee'l buy mee a horse in Smithfield. 1714Lady M. W. Montague Lett. xc. 146 To..buy some little Cornish borough. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 346 With you a man can neither earn nor buy his dinner, without a speculation. 1855Tennyson Brook 222 We bought the farm we tenanted before.
b. absol. (Often coupled with sell.)
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxv. 10 Þa hiᵹ ferdun and woldon bycᵹean, þa com se bryd-guma c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 213 Þat is ure alre wune, þe biggeð and silleð. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 4399 Nan sal bye with þam ne selle. c1386Chaucer Shipman's T. 304 This marchaund..bieth, and creaunceth. 1483Cath. Angl. 30/1 To by and selle, auccionari. c1538Starkey England ii. i. 175 He that Byth dere, may sel dere. 1755Smollett Quix. (1803) I. 233 He that buys and denies, his own purse belies. 1863Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. xiv. 360 Pestering her swain to buy for her.
c. intr. to buy into (earlier also in, prep.): to buy a commission in (a regiment); to purchase stock in (the public funds), shares in (a trading company).
1681Treat. East-India Trade 11, I..had rather buy in this Stock..at 300l. for 100l. then come into any New Stock at even Money. 1849Blackw. Mag. LXVI. 671 The man who buys into a public stock.
d. trans. Of things: To be an equivalent price for; to be the means of purchasing.
1599Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 183 Can the world buie such a jewell? 1622Malynes Anc. Law.-Merch. 87 A London mingled colour cloth, would haue bought at Lisborne two chests of Sugar. 1691Locke Wks. (1727) II. 67 If one Ounce of Silver will buy, i.e. is of equal Value to one Bushel of Wheat. Mod. Health is a treasure that gold cannot buy. It was his wife's money that bought the farm.
2. fig. To obtain, gain, procure, in exchange for something else, or by making some sacrifice.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 137 Ðenne bið þes monnes wile ibeht mid þere elmisse. a1225Ancr. R. 190 Worldliche men buggeð deorre helle, þen ȝe doð heuene. c1250Moral Ode 65 in Cott. Hom. 163 Ech mon mid þet he hauet mei buggen houene riche. a1307Prov. Hendyng xxix, Dere is boþt þe hony þat is licked of þe þorne, quoþ Hendyng. 1430Lydg. Chron. Troy i. vi, No honor may be wonne, But that I muste with my deth it beye. 1513Douglas æneis x. viii. 157 Desyrand he mycht by for mekill thing That he had nevyr tuichit Pallas ȝing. 1571R. Ascham Scholem. (Arb.) 155 B[u]ying witte at the dearest hand, that is, by long experience of the hurt and shame that cummeth of mischeif. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 102 Short intermission bought with double smart. 1813Scott Rokeby i. x, Forced the embarrassed host to buy By query close, direct reply. 1866C. Kingsley Herew. xviii. (1877) 222 A war which could buy them neither spoil nor land.
†3.
a. To pay the penalty of, suffer the consequences of, ‘pay for’; to expiate, atone for; = aby v. 2 (of which it was probably an aphetic form: cf. bye v.). Often with dear; sometimes with bitter, sore; and in phrase, to buy the bargain.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 3683 Ðat gruching hauen he derre boȝt. a1300Cursor M. 1115 And [god] will þat he bii þe vttrage. 1330R. Brunne Chron. 61 Griffyn..was proued traitoure fals, & þat bouht he fulle dere. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xvi. 304 Now he buyeþ hit ful bitere. a1400Morte Arth. (Roxb.) 66 His dedis shall be bought full sore. c1400Mandeville vii. 76 In tokene that the Synnes of Adam scholde ben boughte in that same place. 1530Palsgr. 455/1, I bye the bargayne, or I fele the hurte or displeasure of a thyng. a1553Udall Royster D. (Arb.) 72 Let them the bargaine bie. 1556J. Heywood Spider & F. lvii. 87 Then is that bitter beyght. 1587Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 154 Whether they Did buie their marriage deare. 1599Greene George a Gr. (1861) 263, I will make thee by this treason dear. c1615Chapman Odyss. iv. 664 'Twill not long be..Before thou buy this curious skill with tears.
†b. In pass. Of an offence: To be expiated or ‘visited’ upon (the offender). Obs. rare.
a1300Cursor M. 13849 And qua þis couenand haldes noght Þat it be dere apon him boght.
†4. To set free by paying a price; to redeem, ransom; esp. fig. in Theol. to redeem (from sin, hell, etc.). Obs. exc. in theological use, and in that now rather a conscious metaphor from 1; redeem being the ordinary word for this sense.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 19 Þet þet ear us bohte deore. a1300Hymn to God in Trin. Coll. Hom. 258 He vs bouchte wið his blod of þe feondes swiche. a1300E.E. Psalter cxxix. [cxxx.] 8 And he sal bie [v.r. bien] Irael of alle his wicednesses. Ibid. xxv[i]. 11 Bye me, and of me have merci. a1300Cursor M. 152 He com his folk to bij. Ibid. 6173 Mans barn wit pris he boght. Ibid. 9598 For to bij his prisun vte. 1375Barbour Bruce xvii. 336 Mary, That bare the byrth that all can by. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 202 Redemptor was his name, And we his bretheren, þourgh hym ybouȝt. c1400Mandeville Prol. 2 To bye and to delyvere us from Peynes of Helle. 1413Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle iv. xiii. (1483) 63 He that hath mysdone hath no thynge wherwith to beyen hym seluen. 1534More On the Passion Wks. 1325/1 By hys payne to..bye our soules from payne. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. 95 Quhilk hais bocht us with his precious blude. 1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. i. xxxii, Who bought'st man, whom man (though God) did sell. 1709Watts Hymn, ‘I [We] give immortal praise’, God the Son..who bought us with his blood. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. vi. (1852) 172 So far from mercy having been properly purchased for us, mercy herself buys us.
5. To gain over, engage (a person) by money or otherwise (to or to do something); usually in bad sense, to hire. arch. (Cf. buy off, 7 a; buy over, 9.)
1652Free State comp. Monarchy 1, [I] did..lay out..the poore Talent God intrusted me with, to buy them to the waies of Peace. 1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 88/1 One that for a Drachm might be bought into any thing. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 573 Nor is [he] with Pray'rs, or Bribes, or Flatt'ry bought. 1713Addison Cato ii. ii. 57 Millions of worlds Should never buy me to be like that Cæsar. 1878Morley Diderot II. 121 She did her best..to buy the author.
II. Phrases and combinations.
* Combined with adverbs.
6. buy in.
a. trans. To collect a stock of (commodities) by purchase; often in expressed or implied opposition to sell out. Often absol.
1622E. Misselden Free Trade 71 Some..few..doe ioine..to engrosse and buy in a Commodity, and sell it out againe at their owne price. 1628Sanderson Two Serm. at St. Paul's i. 36 To buy in provision for his house. 1861Times 16 Oct., Many farmers buy in ewes in autumn.
b. To buy back for the owner, esp. at an auction when no sufficient price has been offered.
1642Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 161 Impropriations may be bought in. 1770Wilkes Corr. (1805) IV. 31 Mrs. Macauley bought-in herself the house in Berners-street. a1845Hood Sniff. Birthday xvi, Let Robins advertise..My ‘Man's Estate’, I'm sure enough I shall not buy it in.
c. (absol. from 1 c.) To buy a commission in a regiment; to purchase stock or shares.
1826Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. viii. 124 Young Premium, the son of the celebrated loan-monger, has bought in. 1840Fraser's Mag. XL. 606 The..capitalist reappeared on the Bourse; buying in cautiously for the rise.
7. buy off.
a. trans. To induce (a person) by payment, to relinquish a claim, a course of action, etc.; to get rid of (a claim, a person's opposition or interference) by paying money to the claimant or opponent. Often fig.
1629Earle Microcosm. lxvii. (Arb.) 91 One whom no rate can buy off from the least piece of his freedom. 1851H. Martineau Hist. Eng. i. iv. (1878) 89 Buying off the Prince's claim for the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall. 1865Trench Gust. Adolphus ii. 65 To buy off the presence of troops by enormous gifts to their captains. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. ix. 408 Gruffydd was perhaps bought off in this way.
b. To release from military service by payment.
Mod. He has enlisted, but his friends will buy him off.
8. buy out.
†a. trans. To ransom, redeem. Obs.
1297R. Glouc. 496 Hor maistres hom out bouȝte. c1440Gesta Rom. (1879) 306 This yong man wrote to his fadir, praying him to bey him out [of prison]. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. i. ii. 5 Not being able to buy out his life. 1633Bp. Hall Hard Texts 291 By whom wee are..bought out from the bondage of sin.
b. To purchase a person's estate, or share in any concern, and so to turn (him) out of it.
[1297R. Glouc. 379 So þat hii þat bode meste broȝt out monyon...me boȝte [v.r. broute] ys out wyþ woȝ. ]1644J. Goodwin Danger Fight. agst. God 26 By buying out some Inhabitant, or by purchasing ground. 1840Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. (1858) 77 A Yeoman of Kent, With his yearly rent, Will buy them out all three! 1885Spectator 25 July 967/1 In so far as the landlords are bought out.
c. To get rid of or remove (any kind of liability) by a money payment.
1595Shakes. John iii. i. 164 Dreading the curse that money may buy out. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. ii. 24 They haue bought out their seruices. 1828Ld. Grenville Sink. Fund 42 A landed proprietor..buys out..a rent-charge with which it [his estate] is burthened. 1885Law Reports 14 Queen's B. Div. 875 Money paid in order to buy out the execution.
9. buy over.
trans. To gain over by a payment or bribe.
1848Blackw. Mag. LXIV. 630 Attempting to buy over their chiefs? 1860M. W. Freer Henry IV, I. i. i. 9 [He] had bought the soldiers over to a man. 1877M. E. Braddon Weavers & Weft 328 He..bought over the lodging-house keeper to his interest.
10. buy up [cf. heap up, scrape up].
To purchase with the aim of amassing in one's own hands or taking up out of the market (a stock, or the whole of any commodity).
1533–4Act 25 Hen. VIII, iv, They bie vp all maner of fishe thither brought. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 250 b, Augustus..meruaillyng at the same thyng in a pye, bought hir vp also. 1593Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 107 Them..that would buy them vp by the whole sale, and make them away againe by retaile. 1622E. Misselden Free Trade 56 Another who bought vp all the Iron in Sicilia. 1624Gee Foot out of Snare 48 The most of these Books..were bought-vp by Papists. 1667Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 269 Buying up of goods in case there should be war. 1701W. Wotton Hist. Rome 214 Cleander had bought up all the Corn. 1867R. Patterson in Fortn. Rev. July 77 An..appeal to the State to buy up all the railways in the kingdom. 1874Stubbs Const. Hist. I. xiii. 630 John..was buying up help on every side.
** Phrases.
11.
†a. to buy and sell: to barter, traffic with (in bad sense). Obs. or arch.
1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. i. 192 The Cardinall Does buy and sell his Honour as he pleases.
b. to be bought and sold: often fig., chiefly in sense To be betrayed for a bribe. arch.
a1300Cursor M. 142 How þat ioseph was boght and sald. 1426Audelay Poems 4 Sche schal be boȝt and sold. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, v. iii. 305 Dickon thy maister is bought and sold. 1791Burns Such a Parcel of Rogues, &c. iii, We're bought and sold for English gold. 1864Tennyson Ringlet 33 She that gave you's bought and sold.
12. to buy a pig (in Scotl. a cat) in a poke: (Fr. acheter chat en poche) to purchase something which one has not examined; hence, to enter into an engagement in ignorance of the responsibilities incurred.
1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 80 Ye loue not to bye the pyg in the poke. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 16. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Sac, To buy a Pig in a poake (say we); to bargaine vnaduisedly or hand ouer head. 1821Southey Lett. (1856) III. 252. 1882 The Garden 7 Oct. 313/2 Timidly buying..a pig-in-a-poke cheap collection.
13. to buy over a person's head: to buy for a higher price, to outbid.
1682Wheler Journ. Greece ii. 195 The Bishops are always buying it over one anothers Heads.
14. to buy a brush: = brush v.1 3. (slang.)
1699B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Let's buy a Brush, let us scour off. 1725in New Cant. Dict.
15. to buy money: see quot. 1922. Racing slang.
1906Fox-Davies Dangerville Inheritance vii. 99 The public had left off buying money, and the wagering had become slack. 1922N. & Q. 12th Ser. XI. 206/2 Buying money, laying heavy odds on a favourite. 1928Daily Express 12 July 12/2 Backers..had to buy money over On Avon and Rainbow Bridge.
16. In slang use.
a. To suffer some mishap or reverse; spec. to be wounded; to get killed, to die; (of an airman) to be shot down. Freq. with it.
1825W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch-Bk. (1826) I. 30 Never mind, in closing with Crappo, if we didn't buy it with his raking broadsides. 1920W. Noble With Bristol Fighter Squadron v. 70 The wings and fuselage, with fifty-three bullet holes, caused us to realize on our return how near we had been to ‘buying it’. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 41 To buy, to have something not desired, such as a job, thrust on one unexpectedly, e.g., ‘Just as he was going out, he ran into the Corporal and bought a fatigue.’.. Another meaning: to be scored off or victimized. Of a man getting an answer to a question which made him ridiculous: ‘He bought it that time.’ 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 39 He bought it, he was shot down. 1943C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake 16 He's bought it, he is dead—that is, he has paid with his life. 1944J. E. Morpurgo in Penguin New Writing XXII. 11 I'm afraid we want you elsewhere... Jim Barton bought it, and you'll have to take on his troop. 1953R. Lehmann Echoing Grove 261 He'd lived in London before the war, but the whole street where he'd hung out had bought it in the blitz.
b. To believe; to accept, to approve. Chiefly U.S.
1926E. Wallace More Educ. Evans vi. 139 ‘It's rather early in the day for fairy-tales,’ he said, ‘but I'll buy this one.’ 1944Amer. Speech XIX. 72/1 If the work is perfect, the inspector buys it... In the drilling departments, one might hear a worker say, ‘I am waiting for the company to buy this hole.’ 1949Time 2 May 8/1 After talking it over with the President..Secretary Johnson bought the Air Force point of view. 1951I. Shaw Troubled Air xiii. 213 People feel that the best way to prove how loyal they are is to be as nasty..as they know how, and I'm not buying any of that. 1952M. McCarthy Groves of Academe (1953) ix. 182 It doesn't seem to me likely that they cooked it up between them... More likely she half guessed and he told her. I'm willing to buy that for what it's worth.
c. I'll buy it (in reply to a question or riddle): I give it up (as an invitation to reveal the answer), I don't know, I'll accept your answer.
1930E. Wallace White Face xvi. 248 ‘You thinking, too?’ growled Mason. ‘All right, I'll buy it.’ 1932D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase xi. 128, I'll buy it, Inspector. What did he do with it? 1957P. Frankau Bridge 136 ‘Confession coming,’ he said. ‘I'll buy it. Something that happened last night?’
Add:III. 17. The vb.-stem in Comb. buy-back orig. U.S., the buying-back or repurchase of goods, shares, etc., often by contractual agreement; spec. the repurchase by a company of its own stock, often as a defensive ploy against a takeover bid; freq. attrib.
1954Wall St. Jrnl. 7 May 1/4 This *buy-back policy, which includes repurchase of Sheaffer goods involved in cut-price close-out sales, is aimed at protecting merchants who follow the company's ‘fair trade’ policies. 1963Ibid. 25 Sept. 18/5 The AEC should be required..to purchase the entire plutonium output of reactors... ‘Plutonium buy-back is one of the biggest subsidies Uncle Sam gives.’ 1971Times 22 Feb. (Canada Suppl.) p. ii/2, There is also a lobby..which favours a buy-back policy from United States and other foreign interests in Canadian industry. 1985Observer 6 Jan. 19/5 There were straightforward ‘buybacks’ of shares by companies which felt their shares were undervalued in a mostly flat market.
buy-in, (a) the purchase of shares on the stock exchange, esp. after the non-delivery of similar shares bought; (b) the buying-back of a company's own shares; also, the purchase of a controlling share in a company by an external party (esp. a management consortium): see buy-out n.
1968N.Y. Times 3 Aug. 29/7 A *buy-in occurs when a broker fails to receive from another broker securities he has purchased for a customer and he enters another order in the open market for the shares so that he can deliver them. 1982Sunday Times 12 Dec. 46/8 (heading) Ins and outs of a buy-in. 1984Observer 2 Dec. 29 Walt Disney Productions..took further defensive action last week by announcing plans to purchase up to 3.5 million..of its outstanding shares... The Bass family..will end up with 27.7 per cent of Disney's outstanding shares at the end of the buy-in.
▸ orig. U.S. Mil.to buy the farm (also ranch, plot, etc.)perhaps with allusion to the notion that a farmer whose farm is damaged by a military plane crash would be owed restitution by the government: (of a pilot or aeroplane) to crash fatally; (hence) to be killed; to die (cf. 11a).
[1938Amer. Speech 13 308/2 Bought a car (or telephone pole, etc.), a driver is to blame for an accident.] 1954N.Y. Times Mag. 7 Mar. 20/1 [In a glossary of jet pilots' slang]Bought a plot, had a fatal crash. 1963E. M. Miller Exile to Stars (1964) 29 The police dispatcher says a plane just bought the farm. 1968K. Cooper Aerobics 125 If the clot is in a coronary artery, you've bought the farm. 1976C. R. Anderson Grunts 154 They don't do nothing for a guy till after he buys the ranch. 1989D. Koontz Midnight i. xi. 296, I was in surgery, having a bullet taken out of my chest, and I almost bought the farm. 1999S. Rushdie Ground beneath her Feet (2000) xi. 322 For one hundred and fifty seconds he genuinely checked out, kicked the bucket, bought the farm. Ormus the flatliner.
▸ buy-in n. fig. (orig. and chiefly U.S.) acceptance, agreement, or co-operation; an instance of this.
1991Time 25 Feb. 63/1 We arrive at a strategy, but not everyone in the organization adheres to it. They hedge. There's a lack of buy-in, and you never come out with anything coherent. 1995Enterprise Mar.–Apr. 6/2 A code of ethics can be okay.., but it should be a living document. The production matters more than the product. There should be a moral buy-in from everyone in the organization. 2004Hope July–Aug. 16/2 Hendricks started shopping it around to leaders in the labor and environmental communities, seeking their buy-in—a process he likens to shuttle diplomacy.
▸ colloq. (orig. N. Amer.). to buy into: to agree with, subscribe to, or embrace (an idea, point of view, phenomenon, etc.), to accept the truth of; (also with negative connotations) to be taken in by, to fall for. Cf. senses 1c, 11b.
1972Philos. Q. 22 136 Everybody else subjects himself to a rule requiring that he keep his promises..on the understanding that I will do the same (an understanding I give whenever I buy into the institution by using the word ‘I promise’ in the relevant circumstances). 1982Jrnl. Higher Educ. 53 15 The extent to which the advisor has ‘bought into’ the ‘going’ perspective affects his ability to encourage students to develop new ideas. 1987Atlantic Monthly Feb. 49/1, I don't buy into the Western-model germ theory that germs attack us. I am more attracted to the Eastern model, which has to do with a person's energy. 1994Pacific Daily News (Agana, Guam) 18 Feb. 39/3 Low-income Houstonians were too shrewd to buy into the argument that zoning was for their benefit. 1999Kred (Kent Univ. Students' Union) Nov. 21/1 Whoever we showed the footage to really bought into it, they thought it was absolutely real.
▸ buy-to-let adj. Brit. of, designating, or relating to a property purchased by an investor intending to rent it out rather than live in it.
1996P. Wilde Which? Guide to Renting & Letting (rev. ed.) Introd. 10 A new buy-to-let scheme was launched.., which should make it much easier to arrange loans on second and third properties bought specifically for renting out. 1999Guardian 25 Sept. (Jobs & Money section) 13/4 With renters able to pick and choose, there could be more empty buy-to-let properties. 2006Place in Sun May 134 In an increasingly competitive overseas buy-to-let marketplace it pays to find a property with..that little something extra.
▪ II. buy, n. orig. U.S.|baɪ|
[f. buy v.]
A purchase; best buy, the most worth-while purchase or bargain. Also fig. Phr. on the buy: actively buying.
1879F. A. Buck Yankee Trader (1930) 274, I believe the Mammoth Mine here to be the best buy in the lot. 1890Van Dyke Millionaires of Day 134 Biggest buy in town. 1903Longman's Mag. Mar. 444 What do you think of my new buy? 1911H. Quick Yellowstone N. vii. 191, I believe it's a good buy! 1929Star 21 Aug. 18/2 His clients are ‘on the buy’. 1952J. Pinckney My Son & Foe ii. 14 Knowing the intrinsic quality of the goods, what the best buys are that life puts out on the counter. 1957Times 21 Oct. 13/1 Among the best ‘buys’ from these departments are the deceptively simple models that..bear an unmistakable chic. 1964Which? Feb. 43/2 Because each of these prams had some drawbacks, we do not choose a Best Buy.
▪ III. buy, buȝe
var. of bey v. Obs., to bend. |