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Trade   /treɪd/   Listen
noun
Trade  n.  
1.
A track; a trail; a way; a path; also, passage; travel; resort. (Obs.) "A postern with a blind wicket there was, A common trade to pass through Priam's house." "Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade." "Or, I'll be buried in the king's highway, Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet May hourly trample on their sovereign's head."
2.
Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment. (Obs.) "The right trade of religion." "There those five sisters had continual trade." "Long did I love this lady, Long was my travel, long my trade to win her." "Thy sin's not accidental but a trade."
3.
Business of any kind; matter of mutual consideration; affair; dealing. (Obs.) "Have you any further trade with us?"
4.
Specifically: The act or business of exchanging commodities by barter, or by buying and selling for money; commerce; traffic; barter. Note: Trade comprehends every species of exchange or dealing, either in the produce of land, in manufactures, in bills, or in money; but it is chiefly used to denote the barter or purchase and sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, either by wholesale or retail. Trade is either foreign or domestic. Foreign trade consists in the exportation and importation of goods, or the exchange of the commodities of different countries. Domestic, or home, trade is the exchange, or buying and selling, of goods within a country. Trade is also by the wholesale, that is, by the package or in large quantities, generally to be sold again, or it is by retail, or in small parcels. The carrying trade is the business of transporting commodities from one country to another, or between places in the same country, by land or water.
5.
The business which a person has learned, and which he engages in, for procuring subsistence, or for profit; occupation; especially, mechanical employment as distinguished from the liberal arts, the learned professions, and agriculture; as, we speak of the trade of a smith, of a carpenter, or mason, but not now of the trade of a farmer, or a lawyer, or a physician. "Accursed usury was all his trade." "The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade." "I will instruct thee in my trade."
6.
Instruments of any occupation. (Obs.) "The house and household goods, his trade of war."
7.
A company of men engaged in the same occupation; thus, booksellers and publishers speak of the customs of the trade, and are collectively designated as the trade.
8.
pl. The trade winds.
9.
Refuse or rubbish from a mine. (Prov. Eng.)
Synonyms: Profession; occupation; office; calling; avocation; employment; commerce; dealing; traffic.
Board of trade. See under Board.
Trade dollar. See under Dollar.
Trade price, the price at which goods are sold to members of the same trade, or by wholesale dealers to retailers.
Trade sale, an auction by and for the trade, especially that of the booksellers.
Trade wind, a wind in the torrid zone, and often a little beyond at, which blows from the same quarter throughout the year, except when affected by local causes; so called because of its usefulness to navigators, and hence to trade. Note: The general direction of the trade winds is from N. E. to S. W. on the north side of the equator, and from S. E. to N. W. on the south side of the equator. They are produced by the joint effect of the rotation of the earth and the movement of the air from the polar toward the equatorial regions, to supply the vacancy caused by heating, rarefaction, and consequent ascent of the air in the latter regions. The trade winds are principally limited to two belts in the tropical regions, one on each side of the equator, and separated by a belt which is characterized by calms or variable weather.


verb
Trade  v. t.  To sell or exchange in commerce; to barter. "They traded the persons of men." "To dicker and to swop, to trade rifles and watches."


Trade  v. i.  (past & past part. traded; pres. part. trading)  
1.
To barter, or to buy and sell; to be engaged in the exchange, purchase, or sale of goods, wares, merchandise, or anything else; to traffic; to bargain; to carry on commerce as a business. "A free port, where nations... resorted with their goods and traded."
2.
To buy and sell or exchange property in a single instance.
3.
To have dealings; to be concerned or associated; usually followed by with. "How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth?"


Trade  v.  obs. Imp. of Tread.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Trade" Quotes from Famous Books



... of the Mississippi to any nation"; but neither by nature nor party was he an expansionist. He would have been satisfied with the acquisition of the east bank of the river, including New Orleans. During the negotiations he confessed his doubts of success. He thought trade would soon make Natchez a second New Orleans. Hamilton, on the contrary, was an expansionist by principle and party. Three years before the purchase of Louisiana he said of that country and the Floridas, "I have been long in the habit of considering ...
— The United States of America Part I • Ediwn Erle Sparks
... nearly at an end—a summer that had brought rehabilitation to the Typometer Company, yet rehabilitation under strict rule, strict economy, endless work. Nominally the same thing, the typometer was now but one factor of trade among a dozen other patented inventions under the ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908. • Various
... next to Mere Cognette. She herself had preserved two pairs of candlesticks, carved in choice woods by her own father, who had the "turning" mania. From 1770 to 1780 it was the fashion among rich people to learn a trade, and Monsieur Lousteau, the father, was a turner, just as Louis XVI. was a locksmith. These candlesticks were ornamented with circlets made of the roots of rose, peach, and apricot trees. Madame Hochon actually ...
— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac
... proportions which the great witchcraft movement assumed in bygone years explains the magic properties which we find ascribed to so many plants in most countries. In the nefarious trade carried on by the representatives of this cruel system of sorcery certain plants were largely employed for working marvels, hence the mystic character which they have ever since retained. It was necessary, however, that these should ...
— The Folk-lore of Plants • T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
... work. As the "budget" called for $16,000 the National Board voted to give $5,000 providing the State association would raise $11,000. The headquarters were moved at once and furnished by friends. Later when they became too small the Board of Trade rooms were placed at the disposal of the suffragists through the kindness of E. M. Grant. From time to time organizers were sent to the State until there were twenty-eight and 400 organizations were formed. To relieve the president, Miss Alice Curtis ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various


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