charge

English Online Dictionary. What means charge‎? What does charge mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English chargen, from Old French chargier, from Late Latin carricō (“to load”), from Latin carrus (“a car, wagon”); see car. Doublet of cargo.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɑːd͡ʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)dʒ

Noun

charge (countable and uncountable, plural charges)

1. The amount of money levied for a service.

2. (military) A ground attack against a prepared enemy.

3. A forceful forward movement.
5. An accusation.

   Synonym: count

   1. An official description (by the police or a court) of a crime that somebody may be guilty of.
   2. An accusation by a person or organization.
6. (electromagnetism, chemistry, physics, countable, uncountable) An electric charge.
7. The scope of someone's responsibility.
   • 1848 April 24, John K. Kane, opinion, United States v. Hutchison, as reported in The Pennsylvania law Journal, June 1848 edition, as reprinted in, 1848,The Pennsylvania Law Journal volume 7, page 366 [2]:

8. Someone or something entrusted to one's care, such as a child to a babysitter or a student to a teacher.

9. A load or burden; cargo.

10. An instruction.

11. (property law) A mortgage.
12. (basketball) An offensive foul in which the player with the ball moves into a stationary defender.
13. (firearms) A measured amount of powder and/or shot in a cartridge.
14. (by extension) A measured amount of explosive.
16. (heraldry) An image displayed on an escutcheon.

    Hypernym: bearing

    Comeronym: field

    Near-synonym: emblem

17. (weaponry) A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack.

18. (farriery) A sort of plaster or ointment.
19. (obsolete) Weight; import; value.
20. (historical or obsolete) A measure of thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; a charre.
21. (ecclesiastical) An address given at a church service concluding a visitation.
22. (slang, uncountable) Cannabis.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

charge (third-person singular simple present charges, present participle charging, simple past and past participle charged)

1. To assign a duty or responsibility to.
2. (transitive) To assign (a debit) to an account.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To require payment (of) (a price or fee, for goods, services, etc.).
4. (transitive, chiefly US) To pay on account, as by using a credit card.

5. (transitive, dated) To sell (something) at a given price.

6. (transitive, criminal law, law enforcement) To formally accuse (a person) of a crime.

7. (transitive, property law) To mortgage (a property).
8. To impute or ascribe.
9. To call to account; to challenge.
10. (transitive) To place a burden, load or responsibility on or in.
    • 1911, The Encyclopedia Britannica, entry on Moya:

      [A] huge torrent of boiling black mud, charged with blocks of rock and moving with enormous rapidity, rolled like an avalanche down the gorge.

    1. To ornament with or cause to bear.

    2. (heraldry) To assume as a bearing.

    3. (heraldry) To add to or represent on.

11. (transitive) To load equipment with material required for its use, as a firearm with powder, a fire hose with water, a chemical reactor with raw materials.

    Charge your weapons; we're moving up.

    1. (transitive) To cause to take on an electric charge.

    2. (transitive) To replenish energy to (a battery, or a device containing a battery) by use of an electrical device plugged into a power outlet.

    3. (intransitive, of a battery or a device containing a battery) To replenish energy.

12. (intransitive) To move forward quickly and forcefully, particularly in combat and/or on horseback.
    1. (military, transitive and intransitive) To attack by moving forward quickly in a group.
    2. (basketball) To commit a charging foul.
    3. (cricket, of a batsman) To take a few steps down the pitch towards the bowler as they deliver the ball, either to disrupt the length of the delivery, or to get into a better position to hit the ball.
13. (transitive, of a hunting dog) To lie on the belly and be still. (A command given by a hunter to a dog)

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Cantonese: 叉廚 / 叉厨 (caa¹ cyu⁴), 叉 (caa¹)
• → Kashubian: czardżowac (United States)
• → Malay: caj, cas
• → Swahili: chaji

Translations

Further reading

• “charge”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “charge”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Creagh

Dutch

Alternative forms

• chargie (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French charge.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɑr.ʒə/
• Hyphenation: char‧ge

Noun

charge f (plural charges)

1. a charge (fast ground attack)

Derived terms

• cavaleriecharge

Related terms

• chargeren

Descendants

• Afrikaans: sarsie

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French charge, from Old French charge, carge, equivalent to a deverbal from charger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃaʁʒ/

Noun

charge f (plural charges)

1. load, burden

   charge pesante ― heavy load

2. cargo, freight

   La charge de ce bateau est de cinquante tonneaux. ― The freight of this boat is fifty tons.

3. responsibility, charge

   J’ai la charge de vous dire que... ― I have the responsibility to tell you that...

4. (law) charge

   Ce fait constitue une charge très grave contre le prévenu. ― This fact constitutes a very serious charge against the accused.

5. (military) charge

   une charge massive contre les positions allemandes ― a massive charge against the German positions

6. caricature, comic exaggeration
7. (physics) charge
8. (heraldry) charge
9. (in the plural) costs, expenses

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Brazilian Portuguese: charge
• → Romanian: șarjă
• → Turkish: şarj, şarz (misspelling)

Verb

charge

1. inflection of charger:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “charge”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• gâcher

Middle English

Verb

charge

1. first-person singular present indicative of chargen

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French charge.

Pronunciation

Noun

charge f (plural charges)

1. (Brazil) cartoon (satire of public figures)

   Synonym: caricatura

References

Further reading

• charge on the Portuguese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^pt