Definition of "trade"

EXCHANGE — A trade or swap of no material profit to either side.

1989, Bruce Pandolfini, Chess Openings: Traps and Zaps‎, Glossary, page 225

When Golden State matched the Knicks' offer sheet, the Warriors and Knicks worked out a trade that sent King to New York for Richardson.

2009, Elliott Kalb, Mark Weinstein, The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time‎, page 60

But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade

1969, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”, Bridge over Troubled Water, Columbia Records

Subsequently some Scottish troops settled, took up trade as weavers, tailors, or mariners, and married Dutch women.

2007, Michael Lynch, The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, USA: Oxford University Press, page 228

Getting a job in your major is no breeze: Remember we made fun of those who took up a trade

2012, Liberty Carrington, Wide Eyes Closed, AuthorHouse, page 92

Calms and variable winds, are also experienced during every month of the year, in the space between the trades; […] the vicinity of the north-east trade seems most liable to them.

1826 , James Horsburgh, India Directory, Or Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, Brazil and the Interjacent Ports‎, page 28

In a homosexual of this kind—corresponding to the test of eccentric behavior in the drawing-room—one usually finds a preference for "trade," i.e., sexually normal males, because, if another homosexual yields to him, he is only one of a class, but if he can believe that an exception is being made in his case, it seems a proof that he is being accepted for himself alone.

1950, W. H. Auden, “A Playboy of the Western World: St. Oscar, The Homintern Martyr”, in Partisan Review‎, pages 391–2

His House and household Gods! his trade of War, / His Bow and Quiver; and his trusty Cur.

1697, John Dryden, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in The works of Virgil containing his Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis‎, page 112

A postern with a blind wicket there was, / A common trade to pass through Priam's house

1557, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, The Second Book of Virgil's Æneid

As Shepheardes curre, that in darke eveninges shade / Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade

1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book II

Or, I'll be buried in the king's highway, / Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet / May hourly trample on their sovereign's head.

c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act III, scene iii

The Jewes, emong whom alone and no moe, God hitherto semed for to reigne, by reason of their knowledge of the law, and of the autoritee of being in the right trade of religion.

1545, Nicholas Udall, Paraphrase on Luke, translation of original by Desiderius Erasmus

There those five sisters had continual trade / And used to bathe themselves in that deceitful shade.

1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book II

Long did I love this lady, / Long was my travel, long my trade to win her.

1655, Philip Massinger, John Fletcher, A Very Woman

Thy sin's not accidental but a trade.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]

[…] a free port, where Nations warring with one another resorted with their Goods, and traded as in a neutral Country.

1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures‎, page 248

The [Halo effect] strikes our combined fleets. All ships piloted by biologicals are now [adrift]. I can trade Mendicant ship for ship now and still prevail.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Terminal Six (Legendary)

Kalinin Bay is also in trouble, trading fire with Japanese destroyers and taking hits from both them and cruisers at the same time. Unlike the Gambier Bay, however, it does not appear that these ships have realized they need to switch to high explosive from armor-piercing, and, despite being riddled with shellfire, the ship stays afloat, despite this rather-unequal battering going on for another twenty to thirty minutes.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 29:08 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022

Saucy and over bold, how did you dare / To trade and traffic with Macbeth

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene v]

"It is monstrous - grotesque." "But what made him draw such an animal?" "Trade gin, I should think."

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton