Word: trade Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dreh₂- Proto-Germanic *tradō Proto-West Germanic *trudo Old Saxon tradader. Middle Low German tradeder. Middle English trade English trade From Middle English trade (“path, course of conduct”), introduced into English by Hanseatic merchants, from Middle Low German trade (“track, course”), from Old Saxon trada (“spoor, track”), from Proto-West Germanic *tradu, from Proto-Germanic *tradō (“track, way”), and cognate with Old English tredan (“to tread”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dreh₂- (“to tread, walk, step, run”). Cognate with Dutch trade, tra (“path, trail, course, trade”), German Low German Traad (“track, wagon trail”), Luxembourgish Tratt (“step, pace”), Icelandic tröð (“a lane between fences, enclosure, pen”). Pronunciation: /tɹeɪd/ 1. The buying and selling of goods and services on a market. Labels: uncountable 2. A particular instance of buying or selling, or a series of related transactions executed as a single investment. Labels: countable Example: I did no trades with them once the rumors started. 3. An idea or strategy for an investment on a market. Labels: countable Example: "Sell America" is the latest trade on Wall Street. 4. An instance of bartering items in exchange for one another. Labels: countable Example: EXCHANGE — A trade or swap of no material profit to either side. Example: When Golden State matched the Knicks' offer sheet, the Warriors and Knicks worked out a trade that sent King to New York for Richardson. 5. Those who perform a particular kind of skilled work. Labels: countable Example: The skilled trades were the first to organize modern labor unions. Example: But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. 6. Those engaged in an industry or group of related industries. Labels: countable Example: It is not a retail showroom. It is only for the trade. 7. The skilled practice of a practical occupation. Labels: countable Example: He learned his trade as an apprentice. Example: In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade 8. An occupation in the secondary sector, as opposed to an agricultural, professional or military one. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: After failing his entrance exams, he decided to go into a trade. Example: Most veterans went into trade when the war ended. 9. The business given to a commercial establishment by its customers. Labels: UK, uncountable Example: Even before noon there was considerable trade. Example: Trade has been down in this cold weather. 10. Steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the equator. Labels: countable, in-plural, uncountable Example: They rode the trades going west. Example: Calms and variable winds, are also experienced during every month of the year, in the space between the trades;[…] the vicinity of the north-east trade seems most liable to them. 11. A publication intended for participants in an industry or related group of industries. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Rumors about layoffs are all over the trades. 12. A masculine man available for casual sex with men, often for pay. (Compare rough trade.) Labels: slang, uncountable Example: Josh picked up some trade last night. Example: In a homosexual of this kind—corresponding to the test of eccentric behavior in the drawing-room—one usually finds a preference for "trade," i.e., sexually normal males, because, if another homosexual yields to him, he is only one of a class, but if he can believe that an exception is being made in his case, it seems a proof that he is being accepted for himself alone. 13. Instruments of any occupation. Labels: obsolete, uncountable Example: His House and household Gods! his trade of War, / His Bow and Quiver; and his trusty Cur. 14. Short for trade paperback Labels: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable 15. Refuse or rubbish from a mine. Labels: countable, uncountable 16. A track or trail; a way; a path; passage. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: A postern with a blind wicket there was, / A common trade to pass through Priam's house Example: As Shepheardes curre, that in darke eveninges shade / Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade 17. A course; a custom; a practice; an occupation. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: The Jewes, emong whom alone and no moe, God hitherto semed for to reigne, by reason of their knowledge of the law, and of the autoritee of being in the right trade of religion. Example: There those five sisters had continual trade / And used to bathe themselves in that deceitful shade.