Commerce
WordNet
noun
(1) Transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services)
(2) Social exchange, especially of opinions, attitudes, etc.
(3) The United States federal department that promotes and administers domestic and foreign trade (including management of the census and the patent office); created in 1913
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From < < + ; see ,
Noun
- 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.
- 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.
- Macaulay:
- Sexual intercourse.
- A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.
Synonyms
- trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange; communion; communication.
- See also Wikisaurus:sexual intercourse
Verb
- To carry on trade; to traffic.
- Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. -B. Jonson.
- To hold intercourse; to commune.
- Commercing with himself. -Tennyson.
- Musicians ... taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven. -Prof. Wilson.