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Acquire vs Purchase - What's the difference?

acquire | purchase |

Purchase is a synonym of acquire.



As verbs the difference between acquire and purchase

is that acquire is to get while purchase is to pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.

As a noun purchase is

the act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc..

acquire

English

Verb

(acquir)
  • To get.
  • To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own, as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits.
  • * (Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
  • No virtue is acquired in an instant, but step by step.
  • * (William Blackstone) (1723-1780)
  • Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), chapter=3/19/2, title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
  • , passage=Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house?; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something?; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.}}

    Synonyms

    * attain, earn, gain, obtain, procure, secure, win

    Derived terms

    * acquired taste

    purchase

    English

    Noun

  • (obsolete) The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • I'll get meat to have thee, / Or lose my life in the purchase .
  • An individual item one has purchased.
  • The acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
  • They offer a free hamburger with the purchase of a drink.
  • That which is obtained, got or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
  • That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.
  • He was pleased with his latest purchase .
  • (uncountable) Any mechanical hold or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle or capstan.
  • It is hard to get purchase on a nail without a pry bar or hammer.
  • The apparatus, tackle or device by which such mechanical advantage is gained and in nautical terminology the ratio of such a device, like a pulley, or block and tackle.
  • (rock climbing, uncountable) The amount of hold one has from an individual foothold or ledge.
  • (legal, dated) Acquisition of lands or tenements by means other than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.
  • (Blackstone)

    Derived terms

    * purchase order * repurchase

    Verb

    (purchas)
  • To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.
  • * Spenser
  • that loves the thing he cannot purchase
  • * Shakespeare
  • Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling.
  • * Shakespeare
  • His faults hereditary / Rather than purchased .
  • To buy, obtain by payment of a price in money or its equivalent.
  • to purchase''' land'', ''to '''purchase a house
  • To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.
  • to purchase favor with flattery
  • * Shakespeare
  • One poor retiring minute / Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends.
  • To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
  • To apply to (anything) a device for obtaining a mechanical advantage; to get a purchase' upon, or apply a ' purchase to.
  • to purchase a cannon
  • To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert oneself.
  • * Ld. Berners
  • Duke John of Brabant purchased greatly that the Earl of Flanders should have his daughter in marriage.
  • To constitute the buying power for a purchase, have a trading value.
  • ''Many aristocratic refugees' portable treasures purchased their safe passage and comfortable exile during the revolution

    Synonyms

    * (buy) procure

    Derived terms

    * purchable * purchasing agent * purchasing power