I. ˈkä(ˌ)mərs, -_məs, -ˌmə̄s, -ˌməis noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French, from Latin commercium, from com- + merc-, merx merchandise — more at market
1.
a. : social intercourse : dealings between individuals or groups in society : interchange of ideas, opinions, or sentiments
their commerce with the ancients appears to me to produce … a steadying … effect upon their judgment — Matthew Arnold
b. : dealings of any kind
their conviction that art has no commerce with morality — C.J.Glicksberg
: interrelationship, connection, or communication
the commerce between our intellectual … interests and the nature of experience — Herbert Feigl & W.S.Sellars
2.
a. : the exchange or buying and selling of commodities especially on a large scale and involving transportation from place to place — compare trade , traffic
b. commerces plural , obsolete : commercial transactions
3. : mental or spiritual intercourse or relationship : communion
so hold I commerce with the dead — Alfred Tennyson
4. obsolete : an exchange (as of letters)
a commerce of letters between friends
5. : sexual intercourse
6. obsolete : means of communication : passage
7. : an old card game similar to whiskey poker in which each player in succession may exchange one of his three cards for another card until some one refuses, whereupon the best hand wins
II. “, kəˈmərs, käˈ-, -ˈmə̄s, -ˈməis intransitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle French commercer, from commerce, n.
: to hold personal intercourse or communication : commune — used with with
less disposed to commerce with my kind — Cornelius Weygandt