\Com"merce\, n.

Note: (Formerly accented on the second syllable.) [F.
      commerce, L. commercium; com- + merx, mercis,
      merchandise. See {Merchant}.]
1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Sexual intercourse. --W. Montagu.

4. A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to
   exchange, barter, or trade. --Hoyle.

{Chamber of commerce}. See {Chamber}.

Syn: Trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange;
     communion; communication.

\Com*merce"\ (? or ?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Commerced};
p>. pr. & vb. n. {Commercing}.] [Cf. F. commercer, fr. LL.
commerciare.]
1. To carry on trade; to traffic. [Obs.]

         Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. --B. Jonson.

2. To hold intercourse; to commune. --Milton.

         Commercing with himself.              --Tennyson.

         Musicians . . . taught the people in angelic
         harmonies to commerce with heaven.    --Prof.
                                               Wilson.