Worth so many years' purchase

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]