Merchant
['mɜːtʃ(ə)nt] or ['mɝtʃənt]
Definition
(n.) One who traffics on a large scale, especially with foreign countries; a trafficker; a trader.
(n.) A trading vessel; a merchantman.
(n.) One who keeps a store or shop for the sale of goods; a shopkeeper.
(a.) Of, pertaining to, or employed in, trade or merchandise; as, the merchant service.
(v. i.) To be a merchant; to trade.
Typist: Pansy
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Trader (particularly a wholesale trader), tradesman.
Checked by Delores
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Trader, dealer, importer, tradesman, trafficker
ANT:Shopman, salesman, hawker, huckster, pedler, chandler, costermonger
Typed by Chauncey
Definition
n. one who carries on trade esp. on a large scale: one who buys and sells goods: a trader: (obs.) a supercargo: a merchant-vessel.—adj. pertaining to trade or merchandise.—v.i. Merch′and (Bacon) to trade or traffic.—n. Mer′chandīse goods bought and sold for gain: (B. and Shak.) trade: dealing.—adjs. Mer′chantable suitable for sale: inferior to the very best but suitable for ordinary purposes; Mer′chant-like (Shak.) like a merchant.—ns. Mer′chantman a trading-ship: (B.) a merchant:—pl. Mer′chantmen; Mer′chantry the business of a merchant; merchants collectively.—Merchant prince one who has made a great fortune as a merchant; Merchant service the ships &c. engaged in commerce: the commerce which is carried on by sea; Merchant ship or vessel a ship used for carrying goods; Merchant tailor a tailor who supplies the cloth for the clothes which he makes.
Checker: Luther
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. One engaged in a commercial pursuit. A commercial pursuit is one in which the thing pursued is a dollar.
Editor: Robert
Examples
- The marine-store merchant holds the light, and the law-stationer conducts the search. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The capital of a merchant, for example, is altogether a circulating capital. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- He wants me to be an India merchant, as he was, and I'd rather be shot. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- He is a corn merchant this year, and a wine merchant the next, and a sugar, tobacco, or tea merchant the year after. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- To these communications Peggotty replied as promptly, if not as concisely, as a merchant's clerk. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- These people and their like gave the pompous Russell Square merchant pompous dinners back again. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- One of his most intimate friends was a merchant, who, from a flourishing state, fell, through numerous mischances, into poverty. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- The person to whom the world is chiefly indebted for the practical application of gas lighting is Mr. Winsor, who had been a merchant in London. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- Henry Clerval was the son of a merchant of Geneva, an intimate friend of my father. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- At this minute the father of the family walked in, rattling his seals like a true British merchant. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The Babylonians were a nation of agriculturists and merchants. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Those merchants and manufacturers enjoy a sort of monopoly in the country which is so indulgent to them. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Here, in a broad thoroughfare, once the abode of wealthy City merchants, we found the sculpture works for which we searched. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Let other nations be merchants and warriors, while Greece reasserts her ancient vocation of teacher. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- The rich men of the world before this time had been great landowners or money-lenders and money manipulators or merchants. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The profits of it only are spent in Spain and Portugal, where they help to support the sumptuous profusion of the merchants of Cadiz and Lisbon. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The greater part, both of the exportation and coasting trade of America, is carried on by the capitals of merchants who reside in Great Britain. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Let the merchants on both sides treat with one another. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- The merchants closed their shops, and came out to swell the general chorus of alarm and clamour. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Bankers, merchants, and manufacturers, whose trade depended on exports and interchange of wealth, became bankrupt. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
Editor: Lois