merchant
Americannoun
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a person who buys and sells commodities for profit; dealer; trader.
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a storekeeper; retailer.
a local merchant who owns a store on Main Street.
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Chiefly British. a wholesaler.
adjective
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pertaining to or used for trade or commerce.
a merchant ship.
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pertaining to the merchant marine.
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Steelmaking. (of bars and ingots) of standard shape or size.
noun
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a person engaged in the purchase and sale of commodities for profit, esp on international markets; trader
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a person engaged in retail trade
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(esp in historical contexts) any trader
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derogatory a person dealing or involved in something undesirable
a gossip merchant
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(modifier)
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of the merchant navy
a merchant sailor
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of or concerned with trade
a merchant ship
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verb
noun
Other Word Forms
- merchant-like adjective
- merchantlike adjective
- outmerchant noun
Etymology
Origin of merchant
1250–1300; Middle English marchant < Old French marcheant < Vulgar Latin *mercātant- (stem of *mercātāns ), present participle of *mercātāre, frequentative of Latin mercārī to trade, derivative of merx goods
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But she also noted that Mastercard and Visa have “two-sided networks across billions of consumers and hundreds of millions of merchants” that confer major incumbency advantages.
From MarketWatch
Instead, Coco can fill gaps in the delivery market while saving merchants money and improving the safety of city streets.
From Los Angeles Times
Off the coast of Greenland, Kane and his crew were finally rescued by a passing merchant ship and later transferred to the American rescue vessel.
From Literature
His father gathered his three siblings, mom and a trustee to chat about their business, a merchant bank founded by his great-great-grandfather Robert Fleming in Scotland.
“But there’s another village about five miles yonder that has a fair amount of merchants and peddlers. When you come to a fork in the road, take the left.”
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
