repurchase

verb

re·​pur·​chase (ˌ)rē-ˈpər-chəs 

repurchased; repurchasing

transitive verb

: to buy (something) back or again

… some enterprises moving workloads to the cloud won't have to repurchase software they already own.

—Kurt Marko

especially, of a corporation : to purchase back (shares of one's own common stock) on the open market

The company last winter repaid $405 million of debt, repurchased $202 million in common stock and predicted that sales will rise between 3 and 5 percent this year.

—Jeremiah McWilliams

repurchase noun

plural repurchases

… pointed to the trend of share repurchases, or stock buybacks, emerging among major companies … . As they buy back millions, if not billions, of their shares, their supply of stock grows tighter … and their shareholders usually benefit.

—Elizabeth Gurdus

Examples of repurchase in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Enter Engine, who has announced an approximately 3% position in Avantor and is urging the board to focus the organization on commercial and operational excellence, demonstrate organic growth, reduce costs, optimize the portfolio, refresh the board and use free cash flow to repurchase its own stock. —Kenneth Squire, CNBC, 16 Aug. 2025

During fiscal 2025 alone, the company repurchased $89 million of shares. —David Trainer, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2025

Dillard’s repurchased about 24,500 shares of Class A common stock during the quarter at an average price of $398.67 per share, totaling $9.8 million. —Serenah McKay, Arkansas Online, 14 Aug. 2025

Many had speculated that Berkshire might have started repurchasing shares amid a sizable correction in the stock. —Yun Li, CNBC, 4 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1533, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing repurchase

• repurchase agreement

Rhymes for repurchase

• purchase

Legal Definition

repurchase

1 of 2 transitive verb

re·​pur·​chase

ˌrē-ˈpər-chəs

repurchased; repurchasing

: to buy back

repurchase shares of stock

repurchase

2 of 2 noun

: the act or an instance of purchasing something again or back

specifically : a corporation's buying back of some of its stock at market price (as to increase the amount of Treasury stock or as a preliminary step to going private)