Commerce

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

Com*merce" (? or ?), 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.