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.
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.
Sexual intercourse. W. Montagu.
A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade. Hoyle. Chamber of commerce. See Chamber.
To carry on trade; to traffic. [Obs.] Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. B. Jonson.
To hold intercourse; to commune. Milton. Commercing with himself. Tennyson. Musicians . . . taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven. Prof. Wilson.
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