\Trade\, n. [Formerly, a path, OE. tred a footmark. See
{Tread}, n. & v.]
1. A track; a trail; a way; a path; also, passage; travel;
   resort. [Obs.]
         A postern with a blind wicket there was, A common
         trade to pass through Priam's house.  --Surrey.
         Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade.
                                               --Spenser.
         Or, I'll be buried in the king's highway, Some way
         of common trade, where subjects' feet May hourly
         trample on their sovereign's head.    --Shak.
2. Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment. [Obs.]
   ``The right trade of religion.'' --Udall.
         There those five sisters had continual trade.
                                               --Spenser.
         Long did I love this lady, Long was my travel, long
         my trade to win her.                  --Massinger.
         Thy sin's not accidental but a trade. --Shak.
3. Business of any kind; matter of mutual consideration;
   affair; dealing. [Obs.]
         Have you any further trade with us?   --Shak.
4. Specifically: The act or business of exchanging
   commodities by barter, or by buying and selling for money;
   commerce; traffic; barter.
Note: Trade comprehends every species of exchange or dealing,
      either in the produce of land, in manufactures, in
      bills, or in money; but it is chiefly used to denote
      the barter or purchase and sale of goods, wares, and
      merchandise, either by wholesale or retail. Trade is
      either foreign or domestic. Foreign trade consists in
      the exportation and importation of goods, or the
      exchange of the commodities of different countries.
      Domestic, or home, trade is the exchange, or buying and
      selling, of goods within a country. Trade is also by
      the wholesale, that is, by the package or in large
      quantities, generally to be sold again, or it is by
      retail, or in small parcels. The carrying trade is the
      business of transporting commodities from one country
      to another, or between places in the same country, by
      land or water.
5. The business which a person has learned, and which he
   engages in, for procuring subsistence, or for profit;
   occupation; especially, mechanical employment as
   distinguished from the liberal arts, the learned
   professions, and agriculture; as, we speak of the trade of
   a smith, of a carpenter, or mason, but not now of the
   trade of a farmer, or a lawyer, or a physician.
         Accursed usury was all his trade.     --Spenser.
         The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade. --Milton.
         I will instruct thee in my trade.     --Shak.
6. Instruments of any occupation. [Obs.]
         The house and household goods, his trade of war.
                                               --Dryden.
7. A company of men engaged in the same occupation; thus,
   booksellers and publishers speak of the customs of the
   trade, and are collectively designated as the trade.
8. pl. The trade winds.
9. Refuse or rubbish from a mine. [Prov. Eng.]
Syn: Profession; occupation; office; calling; avocation;
     employment; commerce; dealing; traffic.
{Board of trade}. See under {Board}.
{Trade dollar}. See under {Dollar}.
{Trade price}, the price at which goods are sold to members
   of the same trade, or by wholesale dealers to retailers.
{Trade sale}, an auction by and for the trade, especially
   that of the booksellers.
{Trade wind}, a wind in the torrid zone, and often a little
   beyond at, which blows from the same quarter throughout
   the year, except when affected by local causes; -- so
   called because of its usefulness to navigators, and hence
   to trade.
Note: The general direction of the trade winds is from N. E.
      to S. W. on the north side of the equator, and from S.
      E. to N. W. on the south side of the equator. They are
      produced by the joint effect of the rotation of the
      earth and the movement of the air from the polar toward
      the equatorial regions, to supply the vacancy caused by
      heating, rarefaction, and consequent ascent of the air
      in the latter regions. The trade winds are principally
      limited to two belts in the tropical regions, one on
      each side of the equator, and separated by a belt which
      is characterized by calms or variable weather.

\Trade\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Traded}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Trading}.]
1. To barter, or to buy and sell; to be engaged in the
   exchange, purchase, or sale of goods, wares, merchandise,
   or anything else; to traffic; to bargain; to carry on
   commerce as a business.
         A free port, where nations . . . resorted with their
         goods and traded.                     --Arbuthnot.
2. To buy and sell or exchange property in a single instance.
3. To have dealings; to be concerned or associated; --
   usually followed by with.
         How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth?
                                               --Shak.

\Trade\, v. t.
To sell or exchange in commerce; to barter.
      They traded the persons of men.          --Ezek. xxvii.
                                               13.
      To dicker and to swop, to trade rifles and watches.
                                               --Cooper.

\Trade\, obs.
imp. of {Tread}.