Com"merce (?), n. (Formerly accented on the second syllable.) [F. commerce, L. commercium; com- + merx, mercis, merchadise. See Merchant.]

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.

Chamber of commerce. See Chamber.

Syn. -- Trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange; communion; communication.

 

© Webster 1913.


Com*merce" (? ∨ ), v. 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 1913.