Subscribe vs Purchase - What's the difference?

In obsolete terms the difference between subscribe and purchase

is that subscribe is to yield; to admit to being inferior or in the wrong while purchase is the act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc..

As verbs the difference between subscribe and purchase

is that subscribe is to sign up to have copies of a publication, such as a newspaper or a magazine, delivered for a period of time 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..

English

Verb

(subscrib)

(ergative) To sign up to have copies of a publication, such as a newspaper or a magazine, delivered for a period of time.

Would you like to subscribe''' or '''subscribe a friend to our new magazine, Lexicography Illustrated?

To pay for the provision of a service, such as Internet access or a cell phone plan.

To believe or agree with a theory or an idea.

I don’t subscribe to that theory.

To pay money to be a member of an organization.

To contribute or promise to contribute money to a common fund.

1913:' Theodore Roosevelt, ''Autobiography'' — under no circumstances could I ever again be nominated for any public office, as no corporation would '''subscribe''' to a campaign fund if I was on the ticket, and that they would ' subscribe most heavily to beat me;

To promise to give, by writing one's name with the amount.

Each man subscribed ten dollars.

(business, and, finance) To agree to buy shares in a company.

1776:' Adam Smith, ''The Wealth of Nations'' — The capital which had been ' subscribed to this bank, at two different subscriptions, amounted to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds, of which eighty per cent only was paid up.

To sign; to mark with one's signature as a token of consent or attestation.

Parties subscribe''' a covenant or contract; a man '''subscribes a bond.

Officers subscribe''' their official acts, and secretaries and clerks '''subscribe copies or records.

* Milman

All the bishops subscribed the sentence.

(archaic) To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name).

* Sir Thomas More

[They] subscribed their names under them.

(obsolete) To sign away; to yield; to surrender.

(Shakespeare)

(obsolete) To yield; to admit to being inferior or in the wrong.

(obsolete) To declare over one's signature; to publish.

* Shakespeare

I will subscribe him a coward.

Derived terms

* subscribable * subscriber * subscript * subscription

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