Forms: see prec. [f. prec.]
† 1. trans. To tread (a path); to traverse (the sea); fig. to go through, lead (one’s life). Obs.
1548. H. Harte (title), Godly Newe short treatyse instructyng euery parson howe they shulde trade theyt lyues in ye Imytacyon of Vertu and ye shewyng of vyce.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., To Rdr. I will not cease from trauaile the pathe so to trade, that finer wittes maie fashion them selues with such glimsinge dull light.
1556. in S. P. H. Statham, Dover Charters (1902), 386. All others as tradethe and travaquythe the Narrowe Sease.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. III. Colonies, 725. Timber-Trees (Whereof thou buildest Ships and Houses fair To trade the Seas).
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 30. But I have traded them as frequently as the middle walk in St Paul’s.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Conv. B. J. & W. D., Wks. (1711), 226. They can hardly be compared together, trading diverse paths.
† 2. intr. To tread, step, walk, go in a course.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. i. 473. This flowry Mansion where Mankind doth trade.
1618. in Foster, Eng. Factories India (1906), I. 6. To trad by two at once.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 506. These once happy Iles, which long agoe my feet traded ouer.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 503. Beware of … self-willednesse in Gods way, but humbly trade with him in it.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxiv. 127. By the labour of trading from one place to another.
† 3. trans. To follow (a course) habitually; to practise: also, to use (something) regularly. Obs.
a. 1562. G. Cavendish, Poems, etc. (1825), II. 69. You, yong men all, That rageth in youthe and tradyth the courtly lyfe.
1563. Foxe, A. & M., 851. That no man should speake of the sacramente, but with such wordes, as scripture doth trade, and beare.
c. 1570. in Redforde’s Play Wit & Sc., etc. (1848), 103. To those that lerne and trade vertue.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1676), 66. Being yet a young man, he devised to trade Merchandize.
a. 1631. Donne, Aristeas (1633), 3. The Greeke Language which then was the most traded and vulgar through the whole Universe.
† 4. To familiarize with the use, practice, or knowledge of something; to accustom or habituate to or to do something; to train (up) in or with some practice, etc.; to school, exercise. Obs.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 23 b. Learned scholemaisters to trade vp the Christen youthe in good letters and liberall artes.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs, etc. (Arb.), 79. Trade thou thy selfe, in seruyng hym aboue.
1570. Levins, Manip., 8/36. To Trade, tradere, consuefacere.
1575. Recorde’s Gr. Artes, Pref. A v. This man … dyd trade them to all suche thinges, as eyther were profitable or honest.
1577. Breton, Toyes Idle Head (Grosart), 51/1. Desirous … to see Them both in learning traded up.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 51. Being once taught to loath Vice, and traded in wel doing, from the cradle.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 374. He had committed his sonne to a … sorcerer, to be brought up or traded in such arts as were interdicted by the laws.
5. intr. a. To have dealings; to communicate, converse, have intercourse; to treat, negotiate (with a person). Obs.
1553. Bale, Vocacyon, 19 b. From that daye … I traded wt myselfe, by all possybylyte to set fourth that doctrine.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., 156. He would come and speake with him and trade for a peace.
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. v. 4. How did you dare To Trade and Trafficke with Macbeth, In Riddles, and Affaires of death.
1638. Brathwait, Barnabees Jrnl., II. D ij. My Muse with Bacchus so long traded When I walkt, my legs denaid it.
1676. Glanvill, Seasonable Reflect., 49. Should Satan send the most malignant spirits of Hell openly and professedly to trade for him.
b. To occupy oneself, be concerned in something; to deal, have dealings in. Obs. exc. as fig. from 6 b.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. v. 2. Musicke, moody foode of vs that trade in Loue.
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. iii. (1636), 173. The Tigurins … trading in robberies, slipt away whither they could.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Westm. (1662), II. 241. Hence it was that afterwards he traded so largely in experiments.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxx[i]. In private, however, she traded more deeply in the occult sciences.
6. intr. a. To resort to a place for purposes of trade. Hence, b. to engage in or carry on trade (with a person, in a commodity).
a. 1570. J. Campion, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1599), II. 115. Englishmen did trade thither…. If we should not trade thither, he should lose so much.
1575. in Tolstoy, 1st 40 Yrs. Interc. Eng. & Russia (1875), 161. Our subiectes trawding theither.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, I. x. § 8. Little of the East-Indies being then known, and less traded to.
1735. Johnson, Lobo’s Abyssinia, Voy., iii. 18. Through this [channel] pass almost all the Vessels that Trade to, or from the Red-Sea.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 524. The people in West Jersey trade to Philadelphia.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 565. They traded with profit only to China.
b. 1570. J. Campion, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1599), II. 115. In those dayes that we traded in those parts.
1608. R. Wiffin, etc., in Capt. Smith’s Virginia (1624), 70. He found the Salvages more readie to fight then trade.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 5. They [Dutch merchants] trade there [to Aman] in Cottons.
1718. Free-thinker, No. 152, ¶ 2. I began to Trade for my self, in the Year Seventeen Hundred and Four.
1769. Cook, Voy. round World, II. ii. (1773), 311. Those who remained in the canoes traded with our people very fairly.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 68/1. I used … to trade in salt.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxiv. I only trade now as wholesale dealer.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 671. Robert Cochrane, on behalf of self and partners, Henry Brooks and Edward Gaynor Robinson, trading as Henry Brooks and Co.
c. With sinister implication: To drive a trade in († with) something which should not be bought or sold; to traffic in.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxi. (1687), 221. That cursed principle I named before, or trading with kindnesses, and putting them out to Use.
1737. Gentl. Mag., March, 155/2. The Clergy are continually trading in Benefices, wanting to change a worse for a better.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. ii. Tradest thou, too, for kisses?
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 653. The chief justice was fast accumulating a fortune out of the plunder of a higher class of Whigs. He traded largely in pardons.
1853. Maurice, Proph. & Kings, viii. 133. Trading in religious arts and fears.
1878. Villari, Machiavelli (1898), II. viii. 298. These men traded in war.
d. To trade on or upon: to make use of for one’s own ends; to profit by; to take advantage of.
1884. Spectator, 4 Oct., 1289/2. All parties in the State repeat, demonstrate, and trade on that unanimity.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., I. v. 93. They [professional impostors] … still trade on the fears and fancies of their fellows by disguising themselves in voice and gait and covering of the animal which they pretend to be.
1907. Verney Mem., II. 233. Tom traded on his younger brother’s fair fame.
† 7. trans. To frequent for purposes of trade; to trade with (a country, etc.). Obs.
1585. [see TRADED 3].
c. 1591. in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 77. The Companie of Merchauntes tradinge Muskovia havinge bene … preiudiced by the errors.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 458. At the humble sute of the English merchants trading those countreys.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 305. Since the Portugalls traded Indya they have shaven their heads.
1707. [see TRADED 3].
† 8. To carry in the way of trade; to trade outward, to export for trade purposes. Obs. rare–1.
1638. Sir R. Cotton, Abstr. Rec. Tower, 24. To permit all men bringing in Bullion to Trade outward the value thereof in domesticke Commodities at an abated Custome.
9. † To employ (money) in trade (obs. rare); to make (anything) the subject of trade, to trade in; to acquire or dispose of (also to trade off) by barter (U.S.); to buy and sell, to barter, to exchange.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Hum. Learn., cxxvii. Changing, corrupting, trading hope and feare Instead of Vertues.
1660. T. Watson, in Spurgeon, Treas. David, Ps. I. 22. The non-improvement or talents…. He had not spent it, only not trading it is sentenced.
1806. T. Ashe, Trav. Amer. (1808), I. vi. 112. The words buy and sell are nearly unknown [in Erie, Pennsylvania]; in business nothing is heard but the word trade.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., II. i. I ain’t a-going to trade her.
1834. Major J. Downing, Life & Lett. (Boston, 1835), 39. To see what chance I could find to trade off my ax-handles.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xii. Trading negroes from Africa, dear reader, is so horrid!… But trading them from Kentucky—that’s quite another thing!
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 167. Traded half a dozen large leather sacks from the Maccateese for beads, very cheap; they … are beautifully braided and sewn.
1904. M. Hewlett, Queen’s Quair, I. vi. The peasant women, and girls also, do trade their legs by standing in the lagoon and gathering the leeches that fasten upon them to suck blood.
