Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Commerce
Com′merce
,Noun.
(Formerly accented on the second syllable.)
1.
The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; esp. the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.
The public becomes powerful in proportion to the opulence and extensive
commerce
of private men. Hume.
2.
Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.
Fifteen years of thought, observation, and
commerce
with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser. Macaulay.
3.
Sexual intercourse.
W. Montagu.
4.
A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.
Hoyle.
Syn. – Trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange; communion; communication.
Com-merce′
(? or ?)
, Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Commerced
(#)
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Commercing
.] [Cf. F.
commercer
, fr. LL. commerciare
.] 1.
To carry on trade; to traffic.
[Obs.]
Beware you
commerce
not with bankrupts. B. Jonson.
2.
To hold intercourse; to commune.
Milton.
Commercing
with himself. Tennyson.
Musicians . . . taught the people in angelic harmonies to
commerce
with heaven. Prof. Wilson.
Webster 1828 Edition
Commerce
COMMERCE
, n.1.
In a general sense, an interchange or mutual change of goods, wares, productions, or property of any kind, between nations or individuals, either by barter, or by purchase and sale; trade; traffick. Commerce is foreign or inland. Foreign commerce is the trade which one nation carries on with another; inland commerce, or inland trade, is the trade in the exchange of commodities between citizens of the same nation or state. Active commerce.2.
Intercourse between individuals; interchange of work, business, civilities or amusements; mutual dealings in common life.3.
Familiar intercourse between the sexes.4.
Interchange; reciprocal communications; as, there is a vast commerce of ideas.COMMERCE
, v.i.1.
To traffick; to carry on trade.2.
To hold intercourse with.And looks commercing with the skies.
Definition 2024
commerce
commerce
See also: commercé
English
Noun
commerce (countable and uncountable, plural commerces)
- (business) The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; especially the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.
- Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.
- Macaulay:
- Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser.
- 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:
- Suppose we held our converse not in words, but in music; those who have a bad ear would find themselves cut off from all near commerce, and no better than foreigners in this big world.
- Macaulay:
- (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Montagu to this entry?)
- A 19th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Hoyle to this entry?)
Synonyms
- trade, traffic, dealings, intercourse, interchange, communion, communication
- See also Wikisaurus:sexual intercourse
Derived terms
Translations
large scale trade
|
|
social interaction
|
coitus
Verb
commerce (third-person singular simple present commerces, present participle commercing, simple past and past participle commerced)
- (dated) To carry on trade; to traffic.
- Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. -B. Jonson.
- (dated) To hold intercourse; to commune.
- Commercing with himself. -Tennyson.
- Musicians ... taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven. -Prof. Wilson.
French
Etymology
From Middle French commerce, borrowed from Latin commercium (“commerce, trade”), from com- (“together”) + merx (“good, wares, merchandise”); see merchant, mercenary.
Pronunciation
Noun
commerce m (plural commerces)