bought
verbadjectivenountop 1 000 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈbɔːt//
- United States//ˈbɔt//
- //ˈbɑt//
- //ˈbɒt//
Compromised by money from special interests; corrupt.
verb
- 1
Also a form of buysimple past and past participle of buy.
She bought an expensive bag last week.
People have bought gas masks.
Our products can be bought at your local store.
In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.
Etymology
See buy.
adjective
- 1
informalCompromised by money from special interests; corrupt.
Any senators who vote for this bill must be bought.
Don't bother filing a complaint, the regulators are bought.
If union leadership is bought, why should we even pay dues?
noun
- 1
obsoleteA bend; flexure; curve; a hollow angle.
- 2
obsoleteA bend or hollow in a human or animal body.
- 3
obsoleteA curve or bend in a river, mountain chain, or other geographical feature.
the river it selfe turneth North east and is stil a navigable streame. On the westerne side of this bought is Tauxenent with 40 men.
- 4
obsoleteThe part of a sling that contains the stone.
- 5
obsoleteA fold, bend, or coil in a tail, snake's body etc.
Her huge long taile her den all ouerſpred, / Yet was in knots and many boughtes vpwound, / Pointed with mortall ſting.
Etymology
From Middle English bought, bowght, bouȝt, *buȝt, probably an alteration of bight, biȝt, byȝt (“bend, bight”) after bowen, buwen, buȝen (“to bow, bend”). Cognate with Scots boucht, bucht, bout (“bend”). More at bight and bout.
Forms
- plural
- boughts
bought · Compromised by money from special interests; corrupt.
boulder · A large mass of stone detached from the surrounding land.Boulder · A town in Western Australia, merged with Kalgoorlie in 1989…boulevard · A broad, well-paved and landscaped thoroughfare.