I.verbCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bargain buy
▪ This remains a bargain buy at £3.99.
an impulse buy (=buying something without having planned it)
▪ She admitted that the necklace had been an impulse buy.
bought...freehold
▪ They bought the freehold of their house.
bought...new
▪ I got a used video camera for £300 – it would have cost £1,000 if I’d bought it new.
bought...on HP
▪ We bought the carpets on HP.
buy a flat
▪ I had planned to buy a flat with Geraldine.
buy a house
▪ We bought this house when Liam was just a baby.
buy a ticket
▪ Sheila bought a ticket for the next flight home.
buy insurance
▪ You can buy insurance against risks of all kinds.
buy sb a present (also get sb a presentinformal)
▪ I want to buy a present for Lucy but I'm not sure what she'd like.
▪ Did you get Bill a birthday present?
buy sth on the Internet
▪ He bought the chairs on the Internet.
buy/get sb a drink (=in a pub or a bar)
▪ It’s my turn to buy you a drink.
buy/get sth on credit
▪ They bought all their furniture on credit.
buying/spending habits (=the kinds of things you buy regularly)
▪ The recession will mean that many people will be changing their spending habits.
buy/invest in shares
▪ I bought some shares in British Gas five years ago.
buy/rent an apartment
▪ Tom rented an apartment at the top of the building.
buy/sell (a) property
▪ Buying a property is a complicated business.
get/buy sth second hand
▪ We got most of our furniture second hand.
take out/buy a policy (=arrange it)
▪ People with children should take out a life insurance policy.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
back
▪ A country is required within 3 - 5 years to repurchase its drawings through buying back its own currency with foreign currencies.
▪ Now that same land would have to be bought back at considerable cost to the taxpayers.
▪ First was Jacqui Dixon with £30,000 in used notes to buy back her surrogate son, a vacant-looking child.
▪ I was buying back his trust, I knew.
▪ The council had no legal obligation to buy back the property and previous repurchases were virtually unheard of.
▪ The company will use the money to buy back short-term, high-interest debt.
▪ Third, an Esop can be used to buy back shares from existing employee shareholders.
▪ Time Warner and Turner end talks on Turner buying back a 19. 4 % stake.
■ NOUN
car
▪ Forget house improvements; her next priority would be to buy a car, Ashley decided.
▪ He bought cars, a classic Harley-Davidson motorcycle, boats, travel trailers and expensive pickups.
▪ When it was offered for sale 1,500 people applied to buy the car and it was sold out within 2 days.
▪ Or they might have bought a car instead, giving employment to auto workers.
▪ If Brian agrees to buy the car, then changes his mind, can he withdraw his acceptance?
▪ For example, in buying a motor car a person is buying such things as luxury or speed or economy or status.
▪ I could refuse to buy her a car, but I could not insist that she feel some affection for me.
company
▪ In other words, might not loyalty in large companies be bought by promises of job security?
▪ His grandfather Henry believed that people helped companies raise capital by buying their stock.
▪ Fuji Bank and its securities company bought more than a third of the new bonds sold.
▪ I also know that sterling exchange rates don't favour those companies buying on the international market.
▪ To get around this problem, cable companies are actually buying movie production houses.
customer
▪ Pub customers do not just buy their beer.
▪ On the other hand, a customer could buy enough sand for 200 bags for only $ 9. 50.
▪ Once the customer decides to buy the software, Hewlett provides a password over the phone granting a permanent licence.
▪ All three knew well that customers buying computers needed some way to make them work together.
▪ Around 100 companies all over Britain are giving away Air Miles vouchers to customers who buy their products and services.
▪ They know it takes time and repeat exposure to get customers to buy new products.
▪ What you do have to understand is what motivates a customer to buy a small green apple as opposed to a large red one.
▪ And that will spur more customers to buy phones.
goods
▪ You pay it only if you buy the goods.
▪ Sales of electronics and batteries here mirror the international trend toward buying cordless, portable goods.
▪ Further, the buyer must have made known to the seller the particular purpose for which he was buying the goods.
▪ A cooperative had also been established where blacks could buy goods more cheaply.
▪ People will rush to buy goods and assets before their prices rise further.
▪ The trouble is, you bought the goods from the supplier - the supplier took your money.
▪ But buying the goods is not enough.
▪ The person who enters the shop and asks to buy goods displayed in the window does not therefore accept an offer.
home
▪ But no one there had ever heard of the Arektenje area of Jaffa where the newly married Damiani had bought his home.
▪ Just down the row of lockers from Cianfrocco are two young players who just bought their first homes, neither in California.
▪ A retired couple have gone to the High Court to force the Government to buy their home.
▪ Now that my parents had bought orie home, the decision to acquire a second home came easily.
▪ They are fast-moving, colourful, noisy, and as good if not better than anything you can buy for home computers.
▪ Bombeck bought a home in Paradise Valley near Keane, a friend since her days in Ohio.
▪ After all, if some one wants to buy a home they are more likely to approach a bank or building society.
▪ They want to buy a home.
house
▪ The easiest way is to buy a kit house, like John and Stephanie.
▪ The couple worked hard, and managed to raise and educate three children and to buy a house.
▪ The Department of Transport says they should have known about it before they bought the house.
▪ The look can be quaint or dated, but most people who buy an old house long to update the surfaces.
▪ He had recently bought a huge house there with a garden which bordered on the river, directly opposite Botolph's Wharf.
▪ A few years ago, we bought our Connecticut house from a family with five teen-agers.
▪ He is buying a farm house along with several acres of ground, but the riding will be strictly for his children.
▪ The couple bought the house that was just sold in 1994 for about $ 900, 000, sources say.
investor
▪ But what is the investor buying with these funds?
▪ News that an investor has bought a significant stake in any company is likely to lift that company's share price.
▪ The last time investors bought a flurry of 100-year bonds was in 1993, when Walt Disney&038;.
▪ Should an instrument come with an option attached allowing investors to buy or sell at particular prices?
▪ If investors decide not to buy more telecommunications bonds, the bonds may not rise much higher, Patel said.
▪ Private investors can buy gilts in several ways.
land
▪ The couple moved a mobile home on to their twenty acre smallholding at Awre after they bought the land four years ago.
▪ Scottsdale voters took the most decisive action last May, approving a sales-tax increase to buy land in the McDowell Mountains.
▪ Developer Urban Splash is involved and is in the process of buying part of the land.
▪ But tribes with casinos are starting to use some of their profits to buy land and keep it from being destroyed.
▪ The commission could buy land either by agreement or compulsorily, and it was given very wide powers for this purpose.
▪ The peopIe who bought the land some years ago tore down every-thing.
▪ A private citizen, secretly acting for the clergy, had pretended he was buying the land for non-religious purposes.
▪ He saw in to the future and sold his camels and sheep and bought this land.
money
▪ There, a little money will buy you a good deal of swank.
▪ Those who fish for lobster dive longer and deeper, just to make money to buy more cocaine.
▪ He'd give me money to buy clothes, but I had to keep asking for it.
▪ Not that he had the money to buy her diamonds, but still he thought it anyway.
▪ Herbert gave him pocket money to buy one a week.
▪ Second is that in the physical possession of the things which money can buy.
▪ Did you know she lent him a lot of money to buy them?
people
▪ It was packed with people buying up stout shoes.
▪ Sometimes it seems more support is given to people buying Tupperware than to those of us who want to parent wisely.
▪ Stories such as this will only make people wary of buying Aboriginal art.
▪ This expansion brings elements of Journal news coverage to an additional four million people who buy these newspapers.
▪ The aim is to create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere which will encourage people to buy.
▪ Workers should be producing what people want to buy.
▪ The high quality will encourage people to buy surround-sound units.
▪ Most people buy cookbooks to learn control, to have control, over the thing being cooked.
price
▪ Peskin has been buying property at rock-bottom prices ahead of recovery.
▪ The falling price will cause less corn to be offered and will simultaneously encourage consumers to buy more.
▪ Converted whisky barrels like these can be bought at a reasonable price in most parts of the country.
▪ You were all bought with a price.
▪ When they sell their pubs, Virani will buy - at knockdown prices.
▪ The achievement has been bought at a price.
▪ Now the trick of course is to buy at the cheapest price or sell at the most expensive.
▪ But much more of it is due to consumer-goods firms having encouraged shoppers to buy on price by bombarding them with special offers.
product
▪ They enlighten us on the mystery, we are grateful to them, we trust them and then we buy their product.
▪ But with audiences in the millions, enough people see the commercials and buy enough products to make the system work.
▪ Women think: buy the product, look like that.
▪ That means Chantal could have been placed in the position of buying back product, thus converting revenue to inventory.
▪ Around 100 companies all over Britain are giving away Air Miles vouchers to customers who buy their products and services.
▪ Even recently, fat-free snack manufacturers have had a problem: People would buy the products, but only once.
▪ The public who buy these products from a supermarket often imagine that they are the customers.
▪ I.. Because all meat and poultry must be inspected, the consumer expects to buy only wholesome products.
property
▪ Another useful feature is the price guide to London properties that tells you at a glance where you can afford to buy.
▪ Heavy buying of utility and property issues led the surge.
▪ Peskin has been buying property at rock-bottom prices ahead of recovery.
▪ His son bought the property in 1985.
▪ The council had no legal obligation to buy back the property and previous repurchases were virtually unheard of.
▪ He also made investments of his own, buying property and condominiums.
▪ The Fowlers claim just 3 weeks after he bought the property, Mr Mackarness had applied for planning permission.
▪ If you are buying a property, then always try to maximise your resale potential.
shop
▪ He went into the shop and bought it for the first price the man quoted to him.
▪ Where was the chemist's shop to buy a tube of sun-tan lotion or a sticking plaster?
▪ But her enthusiasm was swiftly dampened by a visit to a curio shop, where she bought several overpriced souvenirs.
▪ The shoe shop next door is bought out by a firm of metal welders.
▪ A customer walked into the shop and bought the shoes.
▪ In fact it was from Vic Furlong's shop that David bought his first saxaphone.
▪ Soo ran out of the shop to buy food.
ticket
▪ They could not buy tickets in advance, so they queue like docile cattle.
▪ Now you have to find an airfare and buy a ticket.
▪ He bought a ticket to Port au Prince.
▪ But your guests will have to buy park admission tickets.
▪ From Thursday gold card members can buy tickets the standing price is £7.
▪ Advised by doctors to recuperate in a warm and dry climate, he bought a ticket to Los Angeles.
▪ Nevertheless, in accordance with the regulations of the shipping company, they had all been obliged to buy return tickets.
▪ When should you buy an airline ticket?
■ VERB
afford
▪ Another useful feature is the price guide to London properties that tells you at a glance where you can afford to buy.
▪ Many smaller companies simply can not afford to buy health insurance for employees and remain in business.
▪ If you can only afford to buy a certain amount of organic produce, potatoes would be a good choice.
▪ Even if his family could have afforded to buy one, they could not have found a ready source.
▪ Sometimes you can get it, but they make it too expensive so you can't afford to buy it.
▪ They reach too frequently the people who could easily afford to buy their own.
▪ Let's face it, Miranda, not many people of your age can afford to buy a house like this.
▪ Until then, availability of super-computers was limited to military researchers and others who could afford to buy time on them.
agree
▪ If Brian agrees to buy the car, then changes his mind, can he withdraw his acceptance?
▪ Reynolds also agreed to buy Anderson a $ 1. 3 million home and pay her attorney fees.
▪ My father thought the sentence unjust because he had only agreed to buy a few bottles of bootleg whisky.
▪ A panel of households was recruited, all of which agreed to buy their tea through the research firm for three months.
▪ Alltel agreed to buy about 3, 600 of Citizens' phone lines in Pennsylvania for about $ 10 million.
▪ Saur has agreed in principle to buy out its partner to produce closer ties with its other operation, Cambrian Environmental Services.
▪ Kimberly-Clark Corp. agreed to buy rival Scott Paper Co.
try
▪ A developer trying to buy up a site in a city comes across an owner who charges a ridiculously high price.
▪ Unaware the store was temporarily closed, she had come downtown Thursday trying to buy a jacket for her husband.
▪ Both trying to buy and trying to sell a property can have fundamental implications for most people's financial situation.
▪ Opponents claim the millionaire publisher is trying to buy votes with his fat checkbook.
▪ I tried to buy it, but the guy wasn't interested.
▪ Napster Inc. tried to buy time with a series of legal appeals ahead of the hearing by U.S.
▪ I commanded him to try and buy a George Paston.
▪ I tried to buy tickets, but the situation was horrendous with the scalpers.
want
▪ I bought something he wanted, and he bought something I wanted.
▪ When stocks are high, they want to buy.
▪ What was beyond him to understand was why any man in his right mind would want to buy.
▪ Workers should be producing what people want to buy.
▪ Anyone wanting to buy a copy, only 100 were printed and of these twenty were sold on the day of publication.
▪ Most think anyone who wants to buy a gun should have to attend a clinic on proper use.
▪ I didn't want to buy a new one in Sweetmary.
▪ They have managed to sell some of the statues though I can't think who'd want to buy them.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be sold a pup/buy a pup
bulk buying/orders etc
▪ Also, with bulk buying you save a lot of time by not having to order each resistor and capacitor individually.
▪ He and other outlets routinely open bulk orders of booster packs, then sell individual rare cards over the counter.
▪ In the 1980s you can not survive in a small business unless you are part of a bulk buying organization.
▪ It might also be worthwhile buying packs of d.i.l. integrated circuit holders, or bulk buying the smaller types.
▪ One reason: Cellular services that buy phones from Motorola have demanded ever-lower prices for their bulk orders.
▪ This is available from us free of charge in bulk orders and I hope you will consider taking some for distribution.
buy/own sth outright
talk/buy etc your way into/past etc sth/sb
▪ Each receives some kind of government stipend, and Harry talks his way into a computer job while Kate does laundry.
▪ Forbes' rivals have accused him of buying his way into the race.
▪ Now nationalised and backed by government money, the firm may buy its way into video technology and markets.
▪ The adventurers could fight, but it would be safer to try and talk their way past.
▪ The family - without plane tickets and passports - had to talk their way past airport officials on their homeward journey.
▪ They bought their way into the landed aristocracy.
▪ You should be able to buy your way into any Mystery you choose with that.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "He said he was with friends last night." "Are you going to buy that?"
▪ A dollar doesn't buy much these days.
▪ I bought a new dress today at Macy's.
▪ I wouldn't buy anything from him - I don't trust him.
▪ If you don't have enough money for the pen, I'll buy it for you.
▪ John makes his living buying and selling used cars.
▪ Keith was going to buy me a ring, but now he says he wants to buy me a watch instead.
▪ She'll never buy that excuse.
▪ The painting was bought by a museum in New York.
▪ The ranch, which was originally bought for $20,000, is now valued at over $2 million.
▪ They say the judge was bought.
▪ We bought a house in Atlanta.
▪ We could tell him it was an accident, but he'd never buy it.
▪ We decided to buy instead of rent.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Again the politicians balked at the cost of buying the land, and the local press echoed their opinion.
▪ Check out the prices for buying into a hamburger or a pizza chain.
▪ Clients who buy through this service will receive a quarterly newsletter.
▪ He bought old refrigerators at garage sales and turned them into coolers for storing his flowers.
▪ If I want to buy you something I buy you earrings or something.
▪ It's always difficult to come to a conclusion about portable computers because people buy them for different reasons.
▪ The theme for April will be Easter and all proceeds will help buy glass and chinaware.
II.nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
good
▪ The consignors then shopped the piece around, and Washington dealer Guy Bush got a very good buy indeed as a consequence.
▪ In the meantime, he has created a persona called the Fashion Director, who recommends good buys.
▪ Room-size roll ends are always a good buy.
▪ Properly priced, chicken wings and backs are good buys.
▪ The table below shows a selection of best buys.
▪ Retail cuts at special prices, to be frozen in the home freezer, offer opportunities for good buys.
▪ When properly priced, the chicken parts are as good buys as the whole chicken.
strong
▪ He slashed his rating from strong buy to reduce, and cut his target from Dollars 60 to Dollars 14.
▪ Salomon Brothers raised the disk-drive concern to strong buy from buy.
▪ An analyst at Salomon Brothers Inc. upgraded the rating on the computer maker to strong buy from buy.
▪ That would be a fairly strong buy signal.
▪ Brown &038; Sons Inc. lowered the rating on the software developer to buy from strong buy.
well
▪ The 1994 Sonoma County cabernet, a slightly better buy at $ 16, was a tad less well-integrated.
▪ If medium eggs are priced at 70 cents or less they are a better buy.
■ VERB
go
▪ My date gets out of the car to go buy popcorn while I fix up the speaker.
▪ If I had any class at all, I would get up from this desk and go buy bagels.
make
▪ It is prone to shrinking and should be pre-shrunk during the manufacture to make it a good buy.
▪ He made a similar buy Monday.
▪ If the current share price is 4.00, would you expect your adviser to make a buy, hold or sell recommendation?
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
bulk buying/orders etc
▪ Also, with bulk buying you save a lot of time by not having to order each resistor and capacitor individually.
▪ He and other outlets routinely open bulk orders of booster packs, then sell individual rare cards over the counter.
▪ In the 1980s you can not survive in a small business unless you are part of a bulk buying organization.
▪ It might also be worthwhile buying packs of d.i.l. integrated circuit holders, or bulk buying the smaller types.
▪ One reason: Cellular services that buy phones from Motorola have demanded ever-lower prices for their bulk orders.
▪ This is available from us free of charge in bulk orders and I hope you will consider taking some for distribution.
buy/own sth outright
talk/buy etc your way into/past etc sth/sb
▪ Each receives some kind of government stipend, and Harry talks his way into a computer job while Kate does laundry.
▪ Forbes' rivals have accused him of buying his way into the race.
▪ Now nationalised and backed by government money, the firm may buy its way into video technology and markets.
▪ The adventurers could fight, but it would be safer to try and talk their way past.
▪ The family - without plane tickets and passports - had to talk their way past airport officials on their homeward journey.
▪ They bought their way into the landed aristocracy.
▪ You should be able to buy your way into any Mystery you choose with that.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He made a similar buy Monday.
▪ If available and if priced right, it will be a good buy.
▪ It was not a rational buy.
▪ Powell felt both clubs were impetuous buys which Virgin could ill-afford at a time when it was struggling out of recession.
▪ Salomon Brothers raised the disk-drive concern to strong buy from buy.