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.