Mar"ket (?), n. [Akin to D. markt, OHG. markat, merkat, G. markt; all fr.L. mercatus trade, market place, fr. mercari, p. p. mercatus, to trade, traffic, merx, mercis, ware, merchandise, prob. akin to merere to deserve, gain, acquire: cf. F. march'e. See Merit, and cf. Merchant, Mart.]
1.
A meeting together of people, at a stated time and place, for the purpose of traffic (as in cattle, provisions, wares, etc.) by private purchase and sale, and not by auction; as, a market is held in the town every week.
He is wit's peddler; and retails his wares
At wakes, and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs.
Shak.
Three women and a goose make a market.
Old Saying.
2.
A public place (as an open space in a town) or a large building, where a market is held; a market place or market house; esp., a place where provisions are sold.
There is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool.
John v. 2.
3.
An opportunity for selling anything; demand, as shown by price offered or obtainable; a town, region, or country, where the demand exists; as, to find a market for one's wares; there is no market for woolen cloths in that region; India is a market for English goods.
There is a third thing to be considered: how a market can be created for produce, or how production can be limited to the capacities of the market.
J. S. Mill.
4.
Exchange, or purchase and sale; traffic; as, a dull market; a slow market.
5.
The price for which a thing is sold in a market; market price. Hence: Value; worth.
What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed ?
Shak.
6. Eng.Law
The privelege granted to a town of having a public market.
⇒ Market is often used adjectively, or in forming compounds of obvious meaning; as, market basket, market day, market folk, market house, marketman, market place, market price, market rate, market wagon, market woman, and the like.
Market beater, a swaggering bully; a noisy braggart. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- Market bell, a bell rung to give notice that buying and selling in a market may begin. [Eng.] Shak. -- Market cross, a cross set up where a market is held. Shak. -- Market garden, a garden in which vegetables are raised for market. -- Market gardening, the raising of vegetables for market. -- Market place, an open square or place in a town where markets or public sales are held. -- Market town, a town that has the privilege of a stated public market.
© Webster 1913.
Mar"ket (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Marketed; p. pr. & vb. n. Marketing.]
To deal in a market; to buy or sell; to make bargains for provisions or goods.
© Webster 1913.
Mar"ket, v. t.
To expose for sale in a market; to traffic in; to sell in a market, and in an extended sense, to sell in any manner; as, most of the farmes have marketed their crops.
Industrious merchants meet, and market there
The world's collected wealth.
Southey.
© Webster 1913.