commerce

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; especially the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.
2. (countable, uncountable)Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.

   “[A]ll libertine diſcourſe, and familiarities vvith vvomen, […] nay even friendſhip it ſelfe […] muſt be vvatched vvith great prudence to be kept ſafe: for vvhich cauſe in ſtead of all theſe perillous commerces of our love, I vvill preferre ſo ſecure an object to it, […]”

   “Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser.”

   “Suppose we held our converse not in words, but in music; those who have a bad ear would find themselves cut off from all near commerce, and no better than foreigners in this big world.”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Sexual intercourse.

   “carnal commerce”

4. (countable, uncountable)An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.

verb

1. (archaic, intransitive)To carry on trade; to traffic.

   “[A]lwaies beware you commerce not with bankrupts, […]”

2. (archaic, intransitive)To hold conversation; to communicate.

   “No, sir, he, / Vex'd with a morbid devil in his blood / That veil'd the world with jaundice, hid his face / From all men, and commercing with himself, / He lost the sense that handles daily life— […]”

   “Musicians […] taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven.”

name

1. A city in Los Angeles County, California, United States.