Gadsden Purchase: Meaning and Definition of

Gads'den Pur'chase

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. a tract of 45,535 sq. mi. (117,935 sq. km), now contained in New Mexico and Arizona, purchased for $10,000,000 from Mexico in 1853, the treaty being negotiated by James Gadsden.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.