'To buy off' definitions:

Definition of 'To buy off'

From: GCIDE
  • Buy \Buy\ (b[imac]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bought (b[add]t); p. pr. & vb. n. Buying (b[imac]"[i^]ng).] [OE. buggen, buggen, bien, AS. bycgan, akin to OS. buggean, Goth. bugjan.]
  • 1. To acquire the ownership of (property) by giving an accepted price or consideration therefor, or by agreeing to do so; to acquire by the payment of a price or value; to purchase; -- opposed to sell. [1913 Webster]
  • Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou wilt sell thy necessaries. --B. Franklin. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To acquire or procure by something given or done in exchange, literally or figuratively; to get, at a cost or sacrifice; to buy pleasure with pain. [1913 Webster]
  • Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. --Prov. xxiii. 23. [1913 Webster]
  • To buy again. See Againbuy. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
  • To buy off. (a) To influence to compliance; to cause to bend or yield by some consideration; as, to buy off conscience. (b) To detach by a consideration given; as, to buy off one from a party.
  • To buy out (a) To buy off, or detach from. --Shak. (b) To purchase the share or shares of in a stock, fund, or partnership, by which the seller is separated from the company, and the purchaser takes his place; as, A buys out B. (c) To purchase the entire stock in trade and the good will of a business.
  • To buy in, to purchase stock in any fund or partnership.
  • To buy on credit, to purchase, on a promise, in fact or in law, to make payment at a future day.
  • To buy the refusal (of anything), to give a consideration for the right of purchasing, at a fixed price, at a future time. [1913 Webster]