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A company of travelers, pilgrims, or merchants, organized and equipped for a long journey, or marching or traveling together, esp. through deserts and countries infested by robbers or hostile tribes, as in Asia or Africa.

en of holding or having, as stocks, merchandise, etc., from one time to another; as, a merchant is carrying a large stock; a farm carries a mortgage; a broker carries stock for a customer; to carry a life insurance. Carry arms (Mil. Drill), a command of the Manual of Arms directing the soldier to hold his piece in the…

ce, a board or association to protect the interests of commerce, chosen from among the merchants and traders of a city. -- Chamber council, a secret council. Shak. -- Chamber counsel or counselor, a counselor who gives his opinion in private, or at his chambers, but does not advocate causes in court. -- Chamber fell…

A place where merchants and others meet to transact business; a building appropriated for mercantile transactions. [Colloq. for Exchange.]

One who buys and sells; a merchant; a buyer or a seller. [Obs.] The word of life is a quick commodity, and ought not, as a drug to be obtruded on those chapmen who are unwilling to buy it. T. Fuller.

A melody; a song. [Obs.] With charm of earliest birds. Milton. Free liberty to chant our charms at will. Spenser.

One who charms, or has power to charm; one who uses the power of enchantment; a magician. Deut. xviii. 11.

An enchantress. Chaucer.

See Chant.

The flute of a bagpipe. See Chanter, n., 3.

See Chantry. [Obs.] Chaucer.

willing. To entertain a cheerful disposition. Shak. The cheerful birds of sundry kind Do chant sweet music. Spenser. A cheerful confidence in the mercy of God. Macaulay. This general applause and cheerful shout. Shak.

ng the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. "Dire chimeras and enchanted isles." Milton.

Having the characteristics of Circe, daughter of Sol and Perseis, a mythological enchantress, who first charmed her victims and then changed them to the forms of beasts; pleasing, but noxious; as, a Circean draught.

To draw or keep near; to approach. [Obs.] Anon she hears them chant it lustily, And all in haste she coasteth to the cry. Shak.

e may be no room to suspect artifice and collusion. Atterbury. By the ignorance of the merchants or dishonesty of the weavers, or the collusion of both, the ware was bad and the price excessive. Swift.

A very fast, unarmored, lightly armed vessel designed to capture or destroy merchant vessels of an enemy. Not being intended to fight, they may be improvised from fast passenger steamers.

commission authoring and inquiry whether a person is a lunatic or not. -- Commission merchant, one who buys or sells goods on commission, as the agent of others, receiving a rate per cent as his compensation. -- Commission, or Commissioned, officer (Mil.), one who has a commission, in distingtion from a noncommossio…

An agent or factor; a commission merchant.

A title given courtesy to the senior captain of a line of merchant vessels, and also to the chief officer of a yachting or rowing club.