trade

Etymology

From Middle English trade (“path, course of conduct”), introduced into English by Hanseatic merchants, from Middle Low German trade (“track, course”), from Old Saxon trada (“spoor, track”), from Proto-Germanic *tradō (“track, way”), and cognate with Old English tredan (“to tread”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /tɹeɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

Noun

trade (countable and uncountable, plural trades)

1. (uncountable) Buying and selling of goods and services on a market.

   Synonym: commerce

2. (countable) A particular instance of buying or selling.

   I did no trades with them once the rumors started.

   Synonyms: deal, barter

3. (countable) An instance of bartering items in exchange for one another.
   • 1989, Bruce Pandolfini, Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps‎, →ISBN, Glossary, page 225:

     EXCHANGE — A trade or swap of no material profit to either side.

   • 2009, Elliott Kalb and Mark Weinstein, The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time‎, →ISBN, page 60:

     When Golden State matched the Knicks' offer sheet, the Warriors and Knicks worked out a trade that sent King to New York for Richardson.

4. (countable) Those who perform a particular kind of skilled work.

   The skilled trades were the first to organize modern labor unions.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎:

     But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries.  By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.

   Synonym: business

5. (countable) Those engaged in an industry or group of related industries.

   It is not a retail showroom. It is only for the trade.

6. (countable) The skilled practice of a practical occupation.

   He learned his trade as an apprentice.

   Synonym: craft

7. (countable or uncountable) An occupation in the secondary sector; as opposed to an agricultural, professional or military one.

   After failing his entrance exams, he decided to go into a trade.

   Most veterans went into trade when the war ended.

   • 2007, Michael Lynch, The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, USA: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 228:

     Subsequently some Scottish troops settled, took up trade as weavers, tailors, or mariners, and married Dutch women.

   • 2012, Liberty Carrington, Wide Eyes Closed, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 92:

     Getting a job in your major is no breeze: Remember we made fun of those who took up a trade

8. (uncountable, Britain) The business given to a commercial establishment by its customers.

   Even before noon there was considerable trade.

   Synonym: patronage

9. (chiefly in the plural) Steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the equator.

   They rode the trades going west.

   • (Can we date this quote?), James Horsburgh, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     the north-east trade

10. (only as plural) A publication intended for participants in an industry or related group of industries.

    Rumors about layoffs are all over the trades.

11. (uncountable, LGBT, slang) A brief sexual encounter.

    Josh picked up some trade last night.

12. (obsolete, uncountable) Instruments of any occupation.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      the house and household goods, his trade of war

13. (mining) Refuse or rubbish from a mine.
14. (obsolete) A track or trail; a way; a path; passage.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Surrey, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      A postern with a blind wicket there was, / A common trade to pass through Priam's house.

    • (Can we date this quote?), Spenser, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade.

    • (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      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.

15. (obsolete) Course; custom; practice; occupation.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Udall, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      the right trade of religion

    • (Can we date this quote?), Spenser, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      There those five sisters had continual trade.

    • (Can we date this quote?), Massinger, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      Long did I love this lady, / Long was my travel, long my trade to win her.

    • (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

      Thy sin's not accidental but a trade.

Verb

trade (third-person singular simple present trades, present participle trading, simple past and past participle traded)

1. (intransitive) To engage in trade

   This company trades in precious metal.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Arbuthnot, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     a free port, where nations […] resorted with their goods and traded

   Synonym: deal

2. (intransitive) To be traded at a certain price or under certain conditions.
3. (transitive) To give (something) in exchange for.

   Will you trade your precious watch for my earring?

   Synonyms: exchange, swap, switch

4. (horticulture, transitive or intransitive) To give someone a plant and receive a different one in return.
5. (intransitive or transitive) To do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood.

   Synonyms: do business, make a deal

6. (intransitive) To have dealings; to be concerned or associated (with).
   • (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth?

See also

• buy
• sell

Anagrams

• E-tard, adret, dater, derat, drate, rated, tared, tread

Verb

trade

1. (archaic) singular past subjunctive of treden

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɛd/

Verb

trade

1. first-person singular present indicative of trader
2. third-person singular present indicative of trader
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of trader
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of trader
5. second-person singular imperative of trader

Anagrams

• dater, tarde, tardé

Alternative forms

• trado

Etymology

From the medieval form traado (13th century), from Late Latin taratrum (“auger”), attested by Isidore of Seville. Either from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia or from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *taratrom, from Proto-Indo-European *térh₁-tro-.^[1][2] Cognate with Portuguese trado, Spanish taladro, Old Irish tarathar, Old Welsh tarater, Breton tarar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾaðe̝/

Noun

trade m (plural trades)

1. auger
   • 1448, X. Ferro Couselo (ed.), A vida e a fala dos devanceiros. Vigo: Galaxia, page 295:

     quatro traados et hua segur et hua aixola montisca

     four augers and a hatchet and an adze

References

• “traado” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “traad” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “trade” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “trade” in Santamarina, Antón (coord.): Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.
• “trade” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Verb

trāde

1. second-person singular present active imperative of trādō

References

• trade in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers