Note: (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.
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.