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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Worth so many years' purchase

Purchase \Pur"chase\ (?; 48), n. [OE. purchds, F. pourchas eager pursuit. See Purchase, v. t.]

  1. The act of seeking, getting, or obtaining anything. [Obs.]

    I'll . . . get meat to have thee, Or lose my life in the purchase.
    --Beau. & Fl.

  2. The act of seeking and acquiring property.

  3. The acquisition of title to, or properly in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.

    It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance.
    --Franklin.

  4. That which is obtained, got, or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
    --Chaucer. B. Jonson.

    We met with little purchase upon this coast, except two small vessels of Golconda.
    --De Foe.

    A beauty-waning and distressed widow . . . Made prize and purchase of his lustful eye.
    --Shak.

  5. That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent. ``The scrip was complete evidence of his right in the purchase.''
    --Wheaton.

  6. Any mechanical hold, or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle, capstan, and the like; also, the apparatus, tackle, or device by which the advantage is gained.

    A politician, to do great things, looks for a power -- what our workmen call a purchase.
    --Burke.

  7. (Law) Acquisition of lands or tenements by other means than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.
    --Blackstone.

    Purchase criminal, robbery. [Obs.]
    --Spenser.

    Purchase money, the money paid, or contracted to be paid, for anything bought.
    --Berkeley.

    Worth [so many] years' purchase, or At [so many] years' purchase, a phrase by which the value or cost of a thing is expressed in the length of time required for the income to amount to the purchasing price; as, he bought the estate at a twenty years' purchase. To say one's life is

    not worth a day's purchase in the same as saying one will not live a day, or is in imminent peril.