merchant

• marchant, merchaunt (obsolete)

From Middle English marchaunt, from Anglo-Norman marchaunt, from mercans, from the verb mercor (“I trade, deal, sell”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝt͡ʃənt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɜːtʃənt/
• Hyphenation: mer‧chant

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃənt

merchant (plural merchants)

1. A person who traffics in commodities for profit.

   Synonym: trader

2. The owner or operator of a retail business.
3. A trading vessel; a merchantman.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], line 5:

     Every day, some sailor's wife, / The masters of some merchant, and the merchant, / Have just our theme of woe.

4. (informal, sometimes derogatory) Someone who is noted for a stated type of activity or behaviour.

   He's some kind of speed merchant — he drives way too fast.

   Goal merchant Smith scored twice again in the match against Mudchester Rovers.

5. (obsolete) A supercargo.

• mercantile
• merchandise

merchant (third-person singular simple present merchants, present participle merchanting, simple past and past participle merchanted)

1. As a resident of a region, to buy goods from a non-resident and sell them to another non-resident.

   a merchanting service

• “merchant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “merchant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “merchant” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.