Trade

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Trade, n. [Formerly, a path, OE. tred a footmark. See Tread, n. & v.].

•  A track; a trail; a way; a path; also, passage; travel; resort.  [1913 Webster]

  "A postern with a blind wicket there was,
  A common trade to pass through Priam's house."  [1913 Webster]

  "Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade."  [1913 Webster]

  "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."  [1913 Webster]
•  Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment.  Udall.  [1913 Webster]

  "There those five sisters had continual trade."  [1913 Webster]

  "Long did I love this lady,
  Long was my travel, long my trade to win her."  [1913 Webster]

  "Thy sin's not accidental but a trade."  [1913 Webster]
•  Business of any kind; matter of mutual consideration; affair; dealing.  [1913 Webster]

  "Have you any further trade with us?"  [1913 Webster]
•  Specifically: The act or business of exchanging commodities by barter, or by buying and selling for money; commerce; traffic; barter.  [1913 Webster]

  " 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."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Accursed usury was all his trade."  [1913 Webster]

  "The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade."  [1913 Webster]

  "I will instruct thee in my trade."  [1913 Webster]
•  Instruments of any occupation.  [1913 Webster]

  "The house and household goods, his trade of war."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  The trade winds.  [1913 Webster]
•  Refuse or rubbish from a mine.  [1913 Webster]

  " 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."  [1913 Webster]

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.

Syn. -- Profession; occupation; office; calling; avocation; employment; commerce; dealing; traffic.

Trade, v. i. 

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "A free port, where nations . . . resorted with their goods and traded."  [1913 Webster]
•  To buy and sell or exchange property in a single instance.  [1913 Webster]
•  To have dealings; to be concerned or associated; -- usually followed by with.  [1913 Webster]

  "How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth?"  [1913 Webster]

Trade, v. t. 

 To sell or exchange in commerce; to barter.  [1913 Webster]
"They traded the persons of men."  [1913 Webster]
"To dicker and to swop, to trade rifles and watches."  [1913 Webster]

Trade, imp. 

 imp. of Tread.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Trade, n. & v.
--n.
1 a buying and selling. b buying and selling conducted between nations etc. c business conducted for profit (esp. as distinct from a profession) (a butcher by trade). d business of a specified nature or time (Christmas trade; tourist trade).
2 a skilled handicraft esp. requiring an apprenticeship (learnt a trade; his trade is plumbing).
3 (usu. prec. by the) a the people engaged in a specific trade (the trade will never agree to it; trade enquiries only). b Brit. colloq. licensed victuallers. c colloq. the submarine service.
4 US a transaction, esp. a swap.
5 (usu. in pl.) a trade wind.
--v.
1 intr. (often foll. by in, with) engage in trade; buy and sell (trades in plastic novelties; we trade with Japan).
2 tr. a exchange in commerce; barter (goods). b exchange (insults, blows, etc.).
3 intr. (usu. foll. by with, for) have a transaction with a person for a thing.
4 intr. (usu. foll. by to) carry goods to a place.

Idiom

be in trade esp. derog. be in commerce, esp. keep a shop. foreign trade international trade. Trade Board Brit. hist. a statutory body for settling disputes etc. in certain industries. trade book a book published by a commercial publisher and intended for general readership. trade cycle Brit. recurring periods of boom and recession. trade gap the extent by which a country's imports exceed its exports. trade in (often foll. by for) exchange (esp. a used car etc.) in esp. part payment for another. trade-in n. a thing, esp. a car, exchanged in this way. trade journal a periodical containing news etc. concerning a particular trade. trade-last US a compliment from a third person which is reported to the person complimented in exchange for one to the reporter. trade mark
1 a device, word, or words, secured by legal registration or established by use as representing a company, product, etc.
2 a distinctive characteristic etc.
trade name
1 a name by which a thing is called in a trade.
2 a name given to a product.
3 a name under which a business trades. trade off exchange, esp. as a compromise. trade-off n. such an exchange. trade on take advantage of (a person's credulity, one's reputation, etc.). trade paper = trade journal. trade plates number-plates used by a car-dealer etc. on unlicensed cars. trade price a wholesale price charged to the dealer before goods are retailed.
trade secret
1 a secret device or technique used esp. in a trade.
2 joc. any secret. Trades Union Congress Brit. the official representative body of British trade unions, meeting annually. trade (or trades) union an organized association of workers in a trade, group of trades, or a profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. trade- (or trades-) unionism this system of association. trade- (or trades-) unionist a member of a trade union. trade wind a wind blowing continually towards the equator and deflected westward, f. obs. blow trade = blow regularly.

Derivative

tradable adj. tradeable adj.

Etymology

ME f. MLG trade track f. OS trada, OHG trata: cf. TREAD

THESAURUS

Trade

abalienate, agency, alien, alienate, alternate, amortize, argue, art, assign, backscratching, balance of trade, bandy, bargain, barter, bartering, be quits with, bequeath, big business, blind bargain, brokerage, business, business dealings, buy, buy and sell, buying and selling, calling, career, career building, careerism, carriage trade, cede, chaffer, change, clientage, clientele, commerce, commercial, commercial affairs, commercial relations, commute, compensate, confer, consign, convey, cooperate, counterchange, craft, custom, deal, deal with, dealing, dealings, deed, deed over, deliver, demise, devolve upon, dicker, do business, do business with, doing business, employment, enfeoff, even trade, exchange, fair trade, following, free trade, game, get back at, get even with, give, give and take, give in exchange, give title to, give-and-take, good name, goodwill, haggle, hand, hand down, hand on, hand over, handicraft, hard bargain, have dealings with, have truck with, horse trade, horse trading, horse-trade, industrial, industry, interchange, intercourse, job, jobbing, lifework, line, line of business, line of work, logroll, logrolling, make a bargain, make a deal, make over, market, marketing, mercantile, mercantile business, mercantilism, merchandise, merchandising, merchant, merchantry, metier, mission, multilateral trade, mystery, negotiate, number, occupation, pass, pass on, pass over, patronage, patronize, pay back, permute, pork barrel, practice, profession, public, purchasing public, pursuit, racket, reciprocal trade, reciprocate, repute, requite, respond, restraint of trade, retail, retailing, retaliate, return, return the compliment, rural market, sell, settle, settle on, shop at, sign away, sign over, small business, specialization, specialty, substitute, suburban market, surrender, swap, swap horses, swapping, switch, take in exchange, the business world, the marketplace, trade at, trade in, trade off, trade sight unseen, trade with, trade-in, trading, traffic, traffic with, trafficking, transact business, transact business with, transfer, transmit, transpose, truck, turn over, unilateral trade, vocation, walk, walk of life, wheeling and dealing, wholesale, wholesaling, work, wrangle, youth market

ROGET THESAURUS

Trade

Business

N business, occupation, employment, pursuit, what one is doing, what one is about, affair, concern, matter, case, matter in hand, irons in the fire, thing to do, agendum, task, work, job, chore, errand, commission, mission, charge, care, duty, part, role, cue, province, function, lookout, department, capacity, sphere, orb, field, line, walk, walk of life, beat, round, routine, race, career, office, place, post, chargeship, incumbency, living, situation, berth, employ, service, engagement, undertaking, vocation, calling, profession, cloth, faculty, industry, art, industrial arts, craft, mystery, handicraft, trade, exercise, work, avocation, press of business, businesslike, workaday, professional, official, functional, busy, on hand, in hand, in one's hands, afoot, on foot, on the anvil, going on, acting, in the course of business, all in one's day's work, professionally Adj, a business with an income at its heels, amoto quaeramus seria ludo, par negotiis neque supra.

Barter

N barter, exchange, scorse, truck system, interchange, a Roland for an Oliver, quid pro quo, commutation, composition, Indian gift, trade, commerce, mercature, buying and selling, bargain and sale, traffic, business, nundination, custom, shopping, commercial enterprise, speculation, jobbing, stockjobbing, agiotage, brokery, deal, dealing, transaction, negotiation, bargain, free trade, commercial, mercantile, trading, interchangeable, marketable, staple, in the market, for sale, wholesale, retail, across the counter, cambio non e furto.

VB barter, exchange, swap, swop, truck, scorse, interchange, commutate, compound for, trade, traffic, buy and sell, give and take, nundinate, carry on a trade, ply a trade, drive a trade, be in business, be in the city, keep a shop, deal in, employ one's capital in, trade with, deal with, have dealings with, transact business with, do business with, open an account with, keep an account with, bargain, drive a bargain, make a bargain, negotiate, bid for, haggle, higgle, dicker, chaffer, huckster, cheapen, beat down, stickle, stickle for, out bid, under bid, ask, charge, strike a bargain, speculate, give a sprat to catch a herring, buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market, buy low and sell high, corner the market, rig the market, stag the market.

Stock Market

VB speculate, invest, trade, trade stocks, play the market, buy long, sell short, take a position, straddle, take a plunge, plunge in, take a flier.