'Worth so many years' purchase' definitions:

Definition of 'Worth so many years' purchase'

From: GCIDE
  • Purchase \Pur"chase\ (?; 48), n. [OE. purchds, F. pourchas eager pursuit. See Purchase, v. t.]
  • 1. The act of seeking, getting, or obtaining anything. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • I'll . . . get meat to have thee, Or lose my life in the purchase. --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. The act of seeking and acquiring property. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. The acquisition of title to, or properly in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent. [1913 Webster]
  • It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance. --Franklin. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. That which is obtained, got, or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition. --Chaucer. B. Jonson. [1913 Webster]
  • We met with little purchase upon this coast, except two small vessels of Golconda. --De Foe. [1913 Webster]
  • A beauty-waning and distressed widow . . . Made prize and purchase of his lustful eye. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent. "The scrip was complete evidence of his right in the purchase." --Wheaton. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. Any mechanical hold, or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle, capstan, and the like; also, the apparatus, tackle, or device by which the advantage is gained. [1913 Webster]
  • A politician, to do great things, looks for a power -- what our workmen call a purchase. --Burke. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. (Law) Acquisition of lands or tenements by other means than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement. --Blackstone. [1913 Webster]
  • Purchase criminal, robbery. [Obs.] --Spenser.
  • Purchase money, the money paid, or contracted to be paid, for anything bought. --Berkeley.
  • Worth [so many] years' purchase, or {At [so many] years' purchase}, a phrase by which the value or cost of a thing is expressed in the length of time required for the income to amount to the purchasing price; as, he bought the estate at a twenty years' purchase. To say one's life is
  • not worth a day's purchase in the same as saying one will not live a day, or is in imminent peril. [1913 Webster]