Hire purchase \Hire purchase\, or, more fully, Hire purchase
agreement \Hire purchase agreement\, or Hire and purchase
agreement \Hire and purchase agreement\ (Law)
   A contract (more fully called contract of hire with an option
   of purchase) in which a person hires goods for a specified
   period and at a fixed rent, with the added condition that if
   he shall retain the goods for the full period and pay all the
   installments of rent as they become due the contract shall
   determine and the title vest absolutely in him, and that if
   he chooses he may at any time during the term surrender the
   goods and be quit of any liability for future installments
   upon the contract. In the United States such a contract is
   generally treated as a conditional sale, and the term hire
   purchase is also sometimes applied to a contract in which the
   hirer is not free to avoid future liability by surrender of
   the goods. In England, however, if the hirer does not have
   this right the contract is a sale.
   [Webster 1913 Suppl.]