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. | 
