to buy off
39
6.8
- phrasal verb
- /baɪ ɔf/
- They cover it up, buy off the witnesses.
- buy off opponents
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Watch on YouTubeIt's fucking shameful that politicians can be bought off like this.
- It's fucking shameful that politicians can be bought off like this.
- They still have to skirt the system and then buy off a man who is so short sighted.
- Don't be bought off with, oh, we're going to add anti-Semitism training to the portfolio of DEI.
Examples
-
I can't be bought off ever again.
-
Tell them you had to buy other investors off.
Fiction book (1993) -
Is this your way of buying me off?
-
"There is no way we can be bought off by money or any other condition.
Fiction book (1990) -
China, meanwhile, has been able to buy off the opposition.
Academic text (2011) -
I'm not here to buy you off.
-
You think I'm just somebody you can buy off?
-
And even if he doesn't, we can always buy him off.
-
Don't ever think you can buy Eric off, Mr. Corbett.
Fiction book (1993) -
"The company tried to buy off the whistleblower to keep the scandal hidden."
Synonyms
175
8.9
To pay someone illegally to influence their actions
156
4.1
Give money or gifts to a person in authority to make them do something dishonest
58
5.0
Give someone money to influence them in a dishonest way
2
8.4
Pay someone secretly to get a favor
To give someone money to get a favor, often as a bribe
How Dishonest
Surface Forms
Morphology
buy + off
There is a clear link from 'buy' (to pay) and the particle 'off' (sense of away/removed), so a learner could plausibly infer paying someone to remove opposition or take action on your behalf. However, the conventionalized sense of 'bribe' or neutralizing someone by payment is a pragmatic, somewhat idiomatic extension that a B1 learner who has not seen the phrase before may not fully predict.
Etymology
The phrasal verb buy off comes from the image of paying someone so they will go away or keep quiet: you buy their silence and the off part suggests they are removed from the situation. So, it now means 'to give someone money or a reward so they will do something for you, often something dishonest, or so they will not take action'.