Charge | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Chär'ge, n.

noun

n. [Fr. charge, Pr. & Sp. carga, It. carica, Pg. carga, carrega, Fr. & Pr. cart, Pg. cargo, It. carico.]

Sense 1. The load or burden which is laid upon a person or thing. [Obs.] “Asses of great charge.” Shak.

Sense 2. The person or thing committed or intrusted to the care, custody, or management of another; a trust; as, to abandon a charge. Dryden.

Sense 3. The exercise of custody or care over any person or thing; office; management; commission.

'Tis a great charge to come under one body's hand. Shak.

Sense 4. An earnest or impressive command, direction, exhortation, or injunction; as, the charge of a judge to a jury.

Sense 5. Imposition of rent, tax, &c., on an estate; whatever constitutes a burden on property; costs; expense;—usually in the plural.

Sense 6. The account of that which is due from one party to another; that which is debited in a business transaction.

Sense 7. The laying of a thing to the account of another; imputation; accusation.

The charge of confounding together very different classes of phenomena. Whewell.

Sense 8. That quantity, as of ammunition, electricity, &c., which any apparatus, as a gun, battery, furnace, machine, &c., is intended to receive and fitted to hold or, what is actually in as a load.

Sense 9. The act of bearing down upon; onset; attack; and hence the signal for attack; as, to sound the charge.

Never, in any other war afore, gave the Romans a hotter charge upon the enemies. Holland.

Sense 10. The position of a weapon fitted for attack; as, to bring a weapon to the charge.

Sense 11. (Far.) A sort of plaster or ointment. White.

Sense 12. (Her.) A bearing or emblem on a field. Burke.

Sense 13. A weight of lead of uncertain quantity, but supposed to be 36 pigs, each pig containing 6 stone lacking 2 pounds, a stone being 12 pounds. [Written also charre.]

Charge and discharge (Equity Practice), the mode or form of accounting before a master in chancery.

Synonyms—Care; custody; trust; management; cost; price; expense; assault; attack; onset; injunction; command; order; mandate.

Chärge, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. CHARGED; p. pr. & vb. n. CHARGING.] [Fr. charger, Pr. & Sp. cargar, It. caricare, carcare, Pg. carregar, from L. Lat. carricare, from Lat. carrus, wagon. Cf. CARGO and CARICATURE.]

Sense 1. To lay on or impose, as a load or burden.

Sense 2. To lay on or impose, as a task, duty, or trust; — followed by with.

He never seemed to charge his memory or to trouble his thoughts with a sense of any of the services that had been done. Bp. Burnet.

Sense 3. To command, request, or exhort in an earnest or authoritative manner; to give instructions to; to address, as a judge a jury, in summing up.

Sense 4. To impose, as a tax; as, to charge rent on land.

Sense 5. To place to the account of, as a debt; to make responsible for; to debit in account; as, to charge one for goods delivered.

Sense 6. To impute or accuse of, having as the direct object the person or thing; as, to charge a crime upon or against a man, or to charge a man with crime.

Sense 7. To place within or upon any piece of apparatus or machinery the quantity it is intended and fitted to contain; to load; as, to charge a gun; to charge an electrical machine, &c.

Sense 8. To bear down upon; to rush upon; to fall on; to attack. “Charged our main battle’s front.” Shak. “Charging an army.” Tennyson.

Synonyms—To accuse; impeach; arraign. See ACCUSE.

Chärge, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. To make an onset; as, to charge with fixed bayonets.

Like your heroes of antiquity, he charges in iron. Glanville.

Could death charge through such a shining shield? Young.