trade

 
Pronunciation: /treɪd/

noun

  • 1 [mass noun] the action of buying and selling goods and services: a move to ban all trade in ivory a significant increase in foreign trade
  • [count noun] North American (in sport) a transfer: players can demand a trade after five years of service
  • 2a job requiring manual skills and special training: the fundamentals of the construction trade [mass noun]: he’s a carpenter by trade
  • 3 (the trade) [treated as singular or plural] the people engaged in a particular area of business: in the trade this sort of computer is called ‘a client-based system’
  • British people licensed to sell alcoholic drink.
  • [mass noun] dated, chiefly derogatory the practice of making one’s living in business, as opposed to in a profession or from unearned income: the aristocratic classes were contemptuous of those in trade
  • 4 (usually trades) a trade wind: the north-east trades

verb

  • 1 [no object] buy and sell goods and services: middlemen trading in luxury goods
  • [with object] buy or sell (a particular item or product): she has traded millions of dollars' worth of metals
  • (especially of shares or currency) be bought and sold at a specified price: the dollar was trading where it was in January
  • 2 [with object] exchange (something) for something else, typically as a commercial transaction: they trade mud-shark livers for fish oil
  • give and receive (something, typically insults or blows): they traded a few punches
  • North American transfer (a player) to another team: would his behaviour cause them to trade him?

Phrases

trade places

US change places: I would be glad to trade places with George and have his job

Phrasal Verbs

trade down (or up)

sell something in order to buy something similar but less (or more) expensive: homeowners who want to trade up

trade something in

exchange a used article in part payment for another: she traded in her Ford for a Land Rover

trade something off

exchange something of value, especially as part of a compromise: the government traded off economic advantages for political gains

trade on

take advantage of (something), especially in an unfair way: the government is trading on fears of inflation

Derivatives

tradable

(or tradeable) adjective

Origin:

late Middle English (as a noun): from Middle Low German, literally 'track', of West Germanic origin; related to tread. Early senses included 'course, way of life', which gave rise in the 16th century to 'habitual practice of an occupation', 'skilled handicraft'. The current verb senses date from the late 16th century