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Synonyms

buy out

British  

verb

  1. to purchase the ownership, controlling interest, shares, etc, of (a company, etc)

  2. to gain the release of (a person) from the armed forces by payment of money

  3. to pay (a person) once and for all to give up (property, interest, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. the purchase of a company, esp by its former management or staff See also leveraged buyout management buyout

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
buy out Idioms  

  1. Purchase the entire stock, business rights, or interests of a concern. For example, A rival store owner offered to buy out my grandfather, but he refused, [Late 1200s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In 2021, he loaned $30 million to the Brooklyn Mirage to help keep the club’s lights on through the Covid-19 pandemic, and for Bildstein to buy out his old business partner.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

When one sibling wants to live in the inherited home but cannot afford to buy out the other, it’s usually time for hard decisions: a partition action, if necessary, to sell and move on.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 21, 2026

But Sale, whose co-owner Simon Orange sold his investment business for a reported £1bn in January 2025, could strike an agreement to buy out the final season of Kpoku's deal.

From BBC • Jan. 9, 2026

Plus, Orange is going to buy out its Spanish joint venture, consolidating its Spanish business, which is also improving.

From Barron's • Nov. 20, 2025

I was gunn buy ’Zekial out first, then him and me working together could buy out my wife and daughter, but Mrs. Holton’s money change all that.

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.