bought meaning (informal): definition, etymology and quotations

bought

adj

UK /ˈbɔːt/ · US /ˈbɔt/

Etymology See buy.

Government, Politics Informal Compromised 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.

1 more example

If union leadership is bought, why should we even pay dues?

Synonyms: bought and paid for
Derived terms: bought and paid for, boughten, overbought, shopbought, storebought, unbought

bought

noun

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.

Obsolete A bend; flexure; curve; a hollow angle.

Obsolete A bend or hollow in a human or animal body.

Obsolete A 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.1612, John Smith, Map of Virginia, Kupperman, published 1988, page 159:

Obsolete The part of a sling that contains the stone.

Obsolete A 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.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 7: