The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Trade \Trade\, n. [Formerly, a path, OE. tred a footmark. See
   Tread, n. & v.]
   1. A track; a trail; a way; a path; also, passage; travel;
      resort. [Obs.]
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            A postern with a blind wicket there was,
            A common trade to pass through Priam's house.
                                                  --Surrey.
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            Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade.
                                                  --Spenser.
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            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.
                                                  --Shak.
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   2. Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment. [Obs.]
      "The right trade of religion." --Udall.
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            There those five sisters had continual trade.
                                                  --Spenser.
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            Long did I love this lady,
            Long was my travel, long my trade to win her.
                                                  --Massinger.
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            Thy sin's not accidental but a trade. --Shak.
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   3. Business of any kind; matter of mutual consideration;
      affair; dealing. [Obs.]
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            Have you any further trade with us?   --Shak.
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   4. Specifically: The act or business of exchanging
      commodities by barter, or by buying and selling for money;
      commerce; traffic; barter.
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   Note: Trade comprehends every species of exchange or dealing,
         either in the produce of land, in manufactures, in
         bills, or in money; but it is chiefly used to denote
         the barter or purchase and sale of goods, wares, and
         merchandise, either by wholesale or retail. Trade is
         either foreign or domestic. Foreign trade consists in
         the exportation and importation of goods, or the
         exchange of the commodities of different countries.
         Domestic, or home, trade is the exchange, or buying and
         selling, of goods within a country. Trade is also by
         the wholesale, that is, by the package or in large
         quantities, generally to be sold again, or it is by
         retail, or in small parcels. The carrying trade is the
         business of transporting commodities from one country
         to another, or between places in the same country, by
         land or water.
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   5. The business which a person has learned, and which he
      engages in, for procuring subsistence, or for profit;
      occupation; especially, mechanical employment as
      distinguished from the liberal arts, the learned
      professions, and agriculture; as, we speak of the trade of
      a smith, of a carpenter, or mason, but not now of the
      trade of a farmer, or a lawyer, or a physician.
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            Accursed usury was all his trade.     --Spenser.
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            The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade. --Milton.
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            I will instruct thee in my trade.     --Shak.
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   6. Instruments of any occupation. [Obs.]
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            The house and household goods, his trade of war.
                                                  --Dryden.
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   7. A company of men engaged in the same occupation; thus,
      booksellers and publishers speak of the customs of the
      trade, and are collectively designated as the trade.
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   8. pl. The trade winds.
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   9. Refuse or rubbish from a mine. [Prov. Eng.]
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   Syn: Profession; occupation; office; calling; avocation;
        employment; commerce; dealing; traffic.
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   Board of trade. See under Board.

   Trade dollar. See under Dollar.

   Trade price, the price at which goods are sold to members
      of the same trade, or by wholesale dealers to retailers.


   Trade sale, an auction by and for the trade, especially
      that of the booksellers.

   Trade wind, a wind in the torrid zone, and often a little
      beyond at, which blows from the same quarter throughout
      the year, except when affected by local causes; -- so
      called because of its usefulness to navigators, and hence
      to trade.
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   Note: The general direction of the trade winds is from N. E.
         to S. W. on the north side of the equator, and from S.
         E. to N. W. on the south side of the equator. They are
         produced by the joint effect of the rotation of the
         earth and the movement of the air from the polar toward
         the equatorial regions, to supply the vacancy caused by
         heating, rarefaction, and consequent ascent of the air
         in the latter regions. The trade winds are principally
         limited to two belts in the tropical regions, one on
         each side of the equator, and separated by a belt which
         is characterized by calms or variable weather.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Trade \Trade\, v. t.
   To sell or exchange in commerce; to barter.
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         They traded the persons of men.          --Ezek. xxvii.
                                                  13.
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         To dicker and to swop, to trade rifles and watches.
                                                  --Cooper.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Trade \Trade\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Traded; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Trading.]
   1. To barter, or to buy and sell; to be engaged in the
      exchange, purchase, or sale of goods, wares, merchandise,
      or anything else; to traffic; to bargain; to carry on
      commerce as a business.
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            A free port, where nations . . . resorted with their
            goods and traded.                     --Arbuthnot.
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   2. To buy and sell or exchange property in a single instance.
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   3. To have dealings; to be concerned or associated; --
      usually followed by with.
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            How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth?
                                                  --Shak.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Trade \Trade\, obs.
   imp. of Tread.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

trade
    n 1: the commercial exchange (buying and selling on domestic or
         international markets) of goods and services; "Venice was
         an important center of trade with the East"; "they are
         accused of conspiring to constrain trade"
    2: the skilled practice of a practical occupation; "he learned
       his trade as an apprentice" [syn: trade, craft]
    3: the business given to a commercial establishment by its
       customers; "even before noon there was a considerable
       patronage" [syn: trade, patronage]
    4: a particular instance of buying or selling; "it was a package
       deal"; "I had no further trade with him"; "he's a master of
       the business deal" [syn: deal, trade, business deal]
    5: people who perform a particular kind of skilled work; "he
       represented the craft of brewers"; "as they say in the trade"
       [syn: craft, trade]
    6: steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the
       equator; "they rode the trade winds going west" [syn: trade
       wind, trade]
    7: an equal exchange; "we had no money so we had to live by
       barter" [syn: barter, swap, swop, trade]
    v 1: engage in the trade of; "he is merchandising telephone
         sets" [syn: trade, merchandise]
    2: turn in as payment or part payment for a purchase; "trade in
       an old car for a new one" [syn: trade, trade in]
    3: be traded at a certain price or under certain conditions;
       "The stock traded around $20 a share"
    4: exchange or give (something) in exchange for [syn: trade,
       swap, swop, switch]
    5: do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood; "She
       deals in gold"; "The brothers sell shoes" [syn: deal,
       sell, trade]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

193 Moby Thesaurus words for "trade":
   abalienate, agency, alien, alienate, alternate, amortize, argue,
   art, assign, backscratching, balance of trade, bandy, bargain,
   barter, bartering, be quits with, bequeath, big business,
   blind bargain, brokerage, business, business dealings, buy,
   buy and sell, buying and selling, calling, career, career building,
   careerism, carriage trade, cede, chaffer, change, clientage,
   clientele, commerce, commercial, commercial affairs,
   commercial relations, commute, compensate, confer, consign, convey,
   cooperate, counterchange, craft, custom, deal, deal with, dealing,
   dealings, deed, deed over, deliver, demise, devolve upon, dicker,
   do business, do business with, doing business, employment, enfeoff,
   even trade, exchange, fair trade, following, free trade, game,
   get back at, get even with, give, give and take, give in exchange,
   give title to, give-and-take, good name, goodwill, haggle, hand,
   hand down, hand on, hand over, handicraft, hard bargain,
   have dealings with, have truck with, horse trade, horse trading,
   horse-trade, industrial, industry, interchange, intercourse, job,
   jobbing, lifework, line, line of business, line of work, logroll,
   logrolling, make a bargain, make a deal, make over, market,
   marketing, mercantile, mercantile business, mercantilism,
   merchandise, merchandising, merchant, merchantry, metier, mission,
   multilateral trade, mystery, negotiate, number, occupation, pass,
   pass on, pass over, patronage, patronize, pay back, permute,
   pork barrel, practice, profession, public, purchasing public,
   pursuit, racket, reciprocal trade, reciprocate, repute, requite,
   respond, restraint of trade, retail, retailing, retaliate, return,
   return the compliment, rural market, sell, settle, settle on,
   shop at, sign away, sign over, small business, specialization,
   specialty, substitute, suburban market, surrender, swap,
   swap horses, swapping, switch, take in exchange,
   the business world, the marketplace, trade at, trade in, trade off,
   trade sight unseen, trade with, trade-in, trading, traffic,
   traffic with, trafficking, transact business,
   transact business with, transfer, transmit, transpose, truck,
   turn over, unilateral trade, vocation, walk, walk of life,
   wheeling and dealing, wholesale, wholesaling, work, wrangle,
   youth market



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

TRADER. One who makes it his business to buy merchandise or goods and
chattels, and to sell the same for the purpose of making a profit. The
quantum of dealing is immaterial, when an intention to deal generally
exists. 3 Stark. 56; 2 C. & P. 135; 1 T. R. 572.
     2. Questions as to who is a trader most frequently arise under the
bankrupt laws, and the most difficult among them are those cases where the
party follows a business which is not that of buying and selling
principally, but in which he is occasionally engaged in purchases and sales.
     3. To show who is a trader will be best illustrated by a few examples:
A farmer who in addition to his usual business, occasionally buys a horse
not calculated for his usual occupation, and sells him again to make a
profit, and who in the course of two years had so bought and sold five or
six horses, two of which had been sold after be bad bought them for the sake
of a guinea profit, was held to be a trader. 1 T. R. 537, n.; 1 Price, 20.
Another firmer who bought a large quantity of potatoes, not to be used on
his farm, but merely to sell again for a profit, was also declared to be a
trader. 1 Str. 513. See 7 Taunt. 409; 2 N. R. 78; 11 East, 274. A butcher
who kills only such cattle as be has reared himself is not a trader, but if
he buy them and kill and sell them with a view to profit, he is a trader. 4
Burr. 21, 47. See 2 Rose, 38; 3 Camp. 233 Cooke, B. L. 48, 73; 2 Wils. 169;
1 Atk. 128; Cowp.745. A brickmaker who follows the business, for the purpose
of enjoying the profits of his real estate merely, is not a trader; but when
he buys the earth by the load or otherwise, and manufactures it into bricks,
and sells them with a view to profit, he is a trader. Cook, B. L. 52, 63; 7
East, 442; 3 C. & P. 500; Mood. & M. 263 2 Rose, 422; 2 Glyn & J. 183; 1
Bro. C. C. 173. For further examples, the reader is referred to 4 M. & R.
486; 9 B. & C. 577; 1 T. R. 34; 1 Rose, 316; 2 Taunt. 178; 2 Marsh. 236; 3
M. & Scott. 761; 10 Bing. 292 Peake, 76; 1 Vent. 270; 3 Brod. & B. 2 6
Moore, 56.