From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Merchant \Mer"chant\, adjective Of, pertaining to, or employed in, trade or merchandise; as, the merchant service.
{Merchant bar}, {Merchant iron} or {Merchant steel}, certain common sizes of wrought iron and steel bars.
{Merchant service or Merchant marine}, the mercantile marine of a country. --Am. Cyc.
{Merchant ship}, a ship employed in commerce.
{Merchant tailor}, a tailor who keeps and sells materials for the garments which he makes.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Merchant \Mer"chant\, verb (used without an object) To be a merchant; to trade. [Obs.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Merchant \Mer"chant\, noun [OE. marchant, OF. marcheant, F. marchand, fr. LL. mercatans, -antis, p. pr. of mercatare to negotiate, L. mercari to traffic, fr. merx, mercis, wares. See {Market}, {Merit}, and cf. {Commerce}.]
1. One who traffics on a large scale, especially with foreign countries; a trafficker; a trader.
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad. --Shak.
2. A trading vessel; a merchantman. [Obs.] --Shak.
3. One who keeps a store or shop for the sale of goods; a shopkeeper. [U. S. & Scot.]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a businessperson engaged in retail trade [syn: {merchandiser}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
60 Moby Thesaurus words for "merchant": agent, baron, broker, business, businessman, caterer, chandler, commercial, commissariat, commissary, dealer, distributor, donor, drummer, forwarder, furnisher, hawker, huckster, importer, industrial, industrialist, jobber, magnate, manciple, marketer, mercantile, merchandiser, merchant prince, middleman, mogul, monger, patron, provider, provisioner, purveyor, quartermaster, regrater, retail, retail dealer, retail merchant, retailer, seller, shopkeeper, steward, stock clerk, storekeeper, supplier, sutler, trade, trader, tradesman, tradeswoman, trading, trafficker, tycoon, vendor, victualer, vivandier, wholesale, wholesaler
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
MERCHANT, noun One engaged in a commercial pursuit. A commercial pursuit is one in which the thing pursued is a dollar.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Merchant The Hebrew word so rendered is from a root meaning "to travel about," "to migrate," and hence "a traveller." In the East, in ancient times, merchants travelled about with their merchandise from place to place (Gen. 37:25; Job 6:18), and carried on their trade mainly by bartering (Gen. 37:28; 39:1). After the Hebrews became settled in Palestine they began to engage in commercial pursuits, which gradually expanded (49:13; Deut. 33:18; Judg. 5:17), till in the time of Solomon they are found in the chief marts of the world (1 Kings 9:26; 10:11, 26, 28; 22:48; 2 Chr. 1:16; 9:10, 21). After Solomon's time their trade with foreign nations began to decline. After the Exile it again expanded into wider foreign relations, because now the Jews were scattered in many lands.
Define.com is a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated solely to the global public interest and the advancement of humanity. It belongs to all of us who have a desire to promote electronic democracy, science, creativity, imagination, reason, critical thinking, peace, race and gender equality, civil rights, equal access to education, personal liberty, free speech, animal rights, compassionate and nonviolent parenting, social and economic justice, global monetary reform, Secular Humanism, cognitive liberty and a permanent cessation of The War on Drugs.
Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
0