Trade Definition | Definition of Trade at Dictionary.com

trade

[treyd]

noun, verb, trad⋅ed, trad⋅ing, adjective

–noun

1.	the act or process of buying, selling, or exchanging commodities, at either wholesale or retail, within a country or between countries: domestic trade; foreign trade.

2.	a purchase or sale; business deal or transaction.

3.	an exchange of items, usually without payment of money.

4.	any occupation pursued as a business or livelihood.

5.	some line of skilled manual or mechanical work; craft: the trade of a carpenter; printer's trade.

6.	people engaged in a particular line of business: a lecture of interest only to the trade.

7.	market: an increase in the tourist trade.

8.	a field of business activity: a magazine for the furniture trade.

9.	the customers of a business establishment.

10.	Informal. trade paper.

11.	trades. trade wind (def. 1).

–verb (used with object)

12.	to buy and sell; barter; traffic in.

13.	to exchange: to trade seats.

–verb (used without object)

14.	to carry on trade.

15.	to traffic (usually fol. by in): a tyrant who trades in human lives.

16.	to make an exchange.

17.	to make one's purchases; shop; buy.

–adjective

18.	of or pertaining to trade or commerce.

19.	used by, serving, or intended for a particular trade: trade journal.

20.	Also, trades. of, composed of, or serving the members of a trade: a trade club.

—Verb phrases

21.	trade down, to exchange a more valuable or desirable item for a less valuable or desirable one.

22.	trade in, to give (a used article) as payment to be credited toward a purchase: We trade in our car every three years.

23.	trade off, to exchange something for or with another.

24.	trade on or upon, to turn to one's advantage, esp. selfishly or unfairly; exploit: to trade on the weaknesses of others.

25.	trade up, to exchange a less valuable or desirable item for a more valuable or desirable one.

Origin:
1300–50; 1540–50 for def. 4; ME: course, path, track < MLG, MD (OS trada), c. OHG trata; akin to tread

Related forms:

trad⋅a⋅ble, trade⋅a⋅ble, adjective

tradeless, adjective

Synonyms:
1. business, barter, dealing. Trade, commerce, traffic refer to the exchanging of commodities for other commodities or money. Trade is the general word: a brisk trade between the nations. Commerce applies to trade on a large scale and over an extensive area: international commerce. Traffic may refer to a particular kind of trade; but it usually suggests the travel, transportation, and activity associated with or incident to trade: the opium traffic; heavy traffic on the railroads. 3. swap. 4. vocation, métier, employment, living, craft. See occupation. 12. Trade, bargain, barter, sell refer to exchange or transfer of ownership for some kind of material consideration. Trade conveys the general idea, but often means to exchange articles of more or less even value: to trade with Argentina. Bargain suggests a somewhat extended period of coming to terms: to bargain about the price of a horse. Barter applies esp. to exchanging goods, wares, labor, etc., with no transfer of money for the transaction: to barter wheat for machinery. Sell implies transferring ownership, usually for a sum of money: to sell a car.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source

Link To trade

Open a Scottrade Account
Take Advantage of Free Real Time News & In-Depth Research! $7 Trades
www.Scottrade.com/Trade

Trading
Straightforward Pricing. Powerful tools. Sign up now at TD AMERITRADE

TDAMERITRADE.com

trade (trād)

The business of buying and selling commodities; commerce. See Synonyms at business.
The people working in or associated with a business or industry: a textile-exporting publication for the trade.
The customers of a specified business or industry; clientele.
The act or an instance of buying or selling; transaction.
An exchange of one thing for another.
An occupation, especially one requiring skilled labor; craft: the building trades, including carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and electrical installation.
The trade winds. Often used in the plural with the.

v. trad·ed, trad·ing, trades

v. intr.

To engage in buying and selling for profit.
To make an exchange of one thing for another.
To be offered for sale: Stocks traded at lower prices this morning.
To shop or buy regularly: trades at the local supermarket.

v. tr.

To give in exchange for something else: trade farm products for manufactured goods; will trade my ticket for yours.
To buy and sell (stock, for example).
To pass back and forth: We traded jokes.

adj.

Of or relating to trade or commerce.
Relating to, used by, or serving a particular trade: a trade magazine.
Of or relating to books that are primarily published to be sold commercially, as in bookstores.

Phrasal Verb(s):
trade downTo trade something in for something else of lower value or price: bought a new, smaller car, trading the old one down for economy.
trade inTo surrender or sell (an old or used item), using the proceeds as partial payment on a new purchase.
trade onTo put to calculated and often unscrupulous advantage; exploit: children of celebrities who trade on their family names.
trade upTo trade something in for something else of greater value or price: The value of our house soared, enabling us to trade up to a larger place.

[Middle English, course, from Middle Low German.]
trad'a·ble, trade'a·ble adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Trade

Trade\, n. [Formerly, a path, OE. tred a footmark. See Tread, n. & v.]

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.

Note: 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.

Board of trade. See under Board.

Trade dollar. See under Dollar.

Trade price, the price at which goods are sold to members of the same trade, or by wholesale dealers to retailers.

Trade sale, an auction by and for the trade, especially that of the booksellers.

Trade wind, a wind in the torrid zone, and often a little beyond at, which blows from the same quarter throughout the year, except when affected by local causes; -- so called because of its usefulness to navigators, and hence to trade.

Note: 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

Trade\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Traded; p. pr. & vb. n. Trading.]

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

Trade\, v. t. 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

Trade\, obs. imp. of Tread.

Language Translation for : trade

Spanish: comercio,

German: der Handel,

Japanese: 貿易

More Translations »

trade

Business or commerce; economic activity.

trade (n.)

c.1375, "path, track, course of action," introduced by the Hanse merchants, from M.Du. or M.L.G. trade "track, course" (probably originally of a trading ship), cognate with O.E. tredan (see tread). Sense of "one's habitual business" (1546) developed from the notion of "way, course, manner of life" (1456); sense of "buying and selling" is first recorded 1555. Trade wind (1650) has nothing to do with commerce, but preserves the obsolete sense of "in a habitual or regular course." Trademark first attested 1838; in figurative sense, 1873. Trade union is attested from 1831.

trade (v.)

1548, "to tread a path," from trade (n.). Meaning "to occupy oneself (in something)" is recorded from 1606. The U.S. sports team sense of "to exchange one player for another" is attested from 1899. To trade down is attested from 1942. Trade-in in ref. to used cars is recorded from 1917; trade-off "sacrifice of one benefit for another" is attested from 1961. Trading post is recorded from 1796.

Trade

1. A transaction involving the sale and purchase of a security.

2. In general, the buying and selling of goods and services.

Investopedia Commentary

Trading is not a new phenomenon - we've been doing it for centuries! The trade that occurred among the most primitive humans has evolved considerably over time, and the word "trade" has come to include the complex trading that occurs on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). However, the basic elements haven't changed a bit - trade still involves giving one thing in exchange for another.

Also spelled: trading

trade

The purchase or sale of an asset. Also called transaction.

trade

To buy or sell an asset, frequently with only short intervals of ownership.

Main Entry: trade
Function: noun
1 a : the business or work in which one engages regularly b : an occupation requiring manual or mechanical skill c : the persons engaged in an occupation
2 : the business of buying and selling or bartering commodities
3 : an act or instance of trading; also : an exchange of property usually without use of money

Main Entry: trade
Function: verb
Inflected Forms: trad·ed; trad·ing
intransitive verb 1 : to engage in the exchange, purchase, or sale of goods
2 : to give one thing in exchange for another
3 : to engage in selling transitive verb 1 : to give in exchange for another commodity; also : to make an exchange of
2 : to engage in frequent buying and selling of (as stocks or commodities) usually in search of quick profits —trad·able also trade·able adjective

Main Entry: trade
Function: adjective
1 : of, relating to, or used in trade or in a particular trade or business
2 also trades : of, composed of, or representing the trades or labor unions

trade

In addition to the idioms beginning with trade, also see tricks of the trade.

Search another word or see trade on Thesaurus | Reference

Car Trade In
Get up to $4,500 off 20 Eligible Ford® Vehicles. See if you Qualify.
LetFordRecycleYourRide.com

Power E*TRADE
100 Commission-Free Stock Trades. Apply Now at E*TRADE Securities.
ETRADE.com

NinjaTrader
The Ultimate Trading Edge Free Demo with Real-time Charting

www.NinjaTraderPro.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Advertise with Us · Link to Us · NASCAR® · Contact Us