trade Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the commercial exchange (buying and selling on domestic or international markets) of goods and services
    • Venice was an important center of trade with the East
    • they are accused of conspiring to constrain trade
  2. noun the skilled practice of a practical occupation
    craft.
    • he learned his trade as an apprentice
  3. noun the business given to a commercial establishment by its customers
    patronage.
    • even before noon there was a considerable patronage
  4. noun a particular instance of buying or selling
    business deal; deal.
    • it was a package deal
    • I had no further trade with him
    • he's a master of the business deal
  5. noun people who perform a particular kind of skilled work
    craft.
    • he represented the craft of brewers
    • as they say in the trade
  6. noun steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the equator
    trade wind.
    • they rode the trade winds going west
  7. noun an equal exchange
    swop; swap; barter.
    • we had no money so we had to live by barter
  8. verb engage in the trade of
    merchandise.
    • he is merchandising telephone sets
  9. verb turn in as payment or part payment for a purchase
    trade in.
    • trade in an old car for a new one
  10. verb be traded at a certain price or under certain conditions
    • The stock traded around $20 a share
  11. verb exchange or give (something) in exchange for
    switch; swop; swap.
  12. verb do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood
    sell; deal.
    • She deals in gold
    • The brothers sell shoes

WordNet

Trade noun
Etymology
Formerly, a path, OE. tred a footmark. See Tread, n. & v.
Definitions
  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. Surrey.
    Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade. Spenser.
    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. Shak.
  2. Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment. Obs. "The right trade of religion." Udall.
    There those five sisters had continual trade. Spenser.
    Long did I love this lady, Long was my travel, long my trade to win her. Massinger.
    Thy sin's not accidental but a trade. Shak.
  3. Business of any kind; matter of mutual consideration; affair; dealing. Obs.
    Have you any further trade with us? Shak.
  4. Specifically: The act or business of exchanging commodities by barter, or by buying and selling for money; commerce; traffic; barter. ✍ 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. Spenser.
    The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade. Milton.
    I will instruct thee in my trade. Shak.
  6. Instruments of any occupation. Obs.
    The house and household goods, his trade of war. Dryden.
  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. Syn. -- Profession; occupation; office; calling; avocation; employment; commerce; dealing; traffic. ✍ 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.
Trade intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Traded; present participle & verbal noun Trading
Definitions
  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. Arbuthnot.
  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? Shak.
Trade transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To sell or exchange in commerce; to barter.
    They traded the persons of men. Ezek. xxvii. 13.
    To dicker and to swop, to trade rifles and watches. Cooper.
Trade
Definitions
obs.
  1. imp. of Tread.

Webster 1913