charge

See also: Charge, chargé, and Chargé

English

Etymology

From Middle English chargen, from Old French chargier, from Medieval Latin carricare (“to load”), from Latin carrus (“a car, wagon”); see car.

From the Franco Belgian French, charger, meaning load or exagere.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /t͡ʃɑːd͡ʒ/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /t͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)dʒ

Noun

charge (countable and uncountable, plural charges)

  1. The scope of someone's responsibility.
    The child was in the nanny's charge.
    • 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 :
      He had the key of a closet in which the moneys of this fund were kept, but the outer key of the vault, of which the closet formed part, was in the charge of another person.
  2. Someone or something entrusted to one's care, such as a child to a babysitter or a student to a teacher.
    The child was a charge of the nanny.
  3. A load or burden; cargo.
    The ship had a charge of colonists and their belongings.
  4. The amount of money levied for a service.
    There will be a charge of five dollars.
  5. An instruction.
    I gave him the charge to get the deal closed by the end of the month.
  6. (military) A ground attack against a prepared enemy.
    Pickett did not die leading his famous charge.
  7. An accusation.
    Synonym: count
    • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 261a.
      we'll nail the sophist to it, if we can get him on that charge;
    • 2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 150:
      A charge often leveled against organic agriculture is that it is more philosophy than science.
    That's a slanderous charge of abuse of trust.
  8. (physics and chemistry) An electric charge.
  9. (basketball) An offensive foul in which the player with the ball moves into a stationary defender.
  10. A measured amount of powder and/or shot in a firearm cartridge.
  11. (heraldry) An image displayed on an escutcheon.
  12. A forceful forward movement.
    • 2011 March 2, Chris Whyatt, “Arsenal 5 - 0 Leyton Orient”, in BBC‎:
      Abou Diaby should have added Arsenal's fourth in the 50th minute after he danced round a host of defenders on a charge towards goal
  13. (weaponry) A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack.
    to bring a weapon to the charge
  14. (farriery) A sort of plaster or ointment.
  15. (obsolete) Weight; import; value.
    • Shakespeare
      many suchlike as's of great charge
  16. (historical or obsolete) A measure of thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; a charre.
  17. (ecclesiastical) An address given at a church service concluding a visitation.

Derived terms
Terms derived from charge (noun)

Translations
measure of thirty-six pigs of lead — see charre

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.
    • Bible, Joshua xxii. 5:
      Moses […] charged you to love the Lord your God.
    • Shakespeare:
      Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition.
  2. (transitive) To assign (a debit) to an account.
    Let's charge this to marketing.
  3. (transitive) To pay on account, as by using a credit card.
    Can I charge my purchase to my credit card?
    Can I charge this purchase?
  4. (transitive, intransitive) To require payment (of) (a price or fee, for goods, services, etc.).
    to charge high for goods   I won't charge you for the wheat
    • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:
      Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.
  5. (possibly archaic) To sell at a given price.
    to charge coal at $5 per unit
  6. (law) To formally accuse (a person) of a crime.
    I'm charging you with assault and battery.
  7. To impute or ascribe.
    • Dryden:
      No more accuse thy pen, but charge the crime / On native sloth, and negligence of time.
  8. To call to account; to challenge.
    • Shakespeare:
      to charge me to an answer
  9. (transitive) To place a burden or load on or in.
    • John Locke:
      the charging of children's memories with rules
    • 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.
      to charge an architectural member with a moulding
    2. (heraldry) To assume as a bearing.
      He charges three roses.
    3. (heraldry) To add to or represent on.
      He charges his shield with three roses or.
  10. (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.
    • Shakespeare:
      their battering cannon charged to the mouths
    1. (transitive) To cause to take on an electric charge.
      Rubbing amber with wool will charge it quickly.
    2. (transitive) To add energy to (a battery, or a device containing a battery).
      He charged the battery overnight.
      Don't forget to charge the drill.
      I charge my phone every night.
    3. (intransitive) (Of a battery or a device containing a battery) To gain energy.
      The battery is still charging: I can't use it yet.
      His cell phone charges very quickly, whereas mine takes forever.
  11. (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.
      The impetuous corps charged the enemy lines.
    2. (basketball) To commit a charging foul.
    3. (cricket, of a batsman) To take a few steps down the pitch towards the bowler as he delivers the ball, either to disrupt the length of the delivery, or to get into a better position to hit the ball.
  12. (transitive, of a hunting dog) To lie on the belly and be still (A command given by a hunter to a dog).

Derived terms
terms derived from charge (verb)

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Further reading
  • charge in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • charge in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From charger.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ʃaʁʒ/
  • audio(file)

Noun

charge f (plural charges)

  1. load, burden
  2. cargo, freight
  3. responsibility, charge
  4. (law) charge
  5. (military) charge
  6. (in the plural) costs, expenses

Descendants

Verb

charge

  1. first-person singular present indicative of charger
  2. third-person singular present indicative of charger
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of charger
  4. first-person singular present subjunctive of charger
  5. second-person singular imperative of charger

Further reading

Anagrams

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French charge.

Noun

charge f (plural charges)

  1. cartoon (satire of public figures)

Synonyms

Further reading
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