Prefer vs Purchase - What's the difference?

prefer | purchase | Related terms |

Prefer is a related term of purchase.

As verbs the difference between prefer and purchase

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

As a noun purchase is

(obsolete) the act or process of seeking and obtaining something (eg property, etc).

prefer

English

Alternative forms

* * preferre

Verb

(preferr)

*, II.3.2:

*:Tiberius preferred many to honours in his time, because they were famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers.

(lb) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.

*:"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;."

(lb) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").

*1630 , , True Travels , in Kupperman 1988, p.36:

*:one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King James.

*1817 , (Walter Scott), , XVII:

*:Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept.

Usage notes

* The verb can be used in three different forms: *

prefer'' + noun + ''to'' (or ''over'') + noun. Example: ''I prefer coffee to tea .

prefer'' + gerund + ''to'' (or ''over'') + gerund. Example: ''I prefer skiing to swimming .

prefer'' + full infinitive + ''rather than'' + bare infinitive. Example: ''I prefer to eat fish rather than (eat) meat .

Derived terms

* preference * preferential

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