charge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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.

charge (countable and uncountable, plural charges)

  1. The amount of money levied for a service.
    There will be a charge of five dollars.
  2. (military) An attack in which combatants rush towards an enemy in an attempt to engage in close combat.
  3. A forceful forward movement.
    • 2011 March 2, Chris Whyatt, “Arsenal 5 - 0 Leyton Orient”, in BBC‎[1]:
      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
  4. An accusation.
    Synonym: count
    1. An official description (by the police or a court) of a crime that somebody may be guilty of.
      two charges of manslaughter
      • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108:
        "Ain't gone be no Rikers Island for you next time," I warned him. "You get tapped on another gun charge and you looking at some upstate time."
    2. An accusation by a person or organization.
      That's a slanderous charge of abuse of trust.
      • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 261a:
        we'll nail the sophist to it, if we can get him on that charge;
  5. (electromagnetism, chemistry, physics, countable, uncountable) An electric charge.
  6. 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 [2]:
      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.
  7. 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.
  8. A load or burden; cargo.
    The ship had a charge of colonists and their belongings.
  9. An instruction.
    I gave him the charge to get the deal closed by the end of the month.
  10. (property law) A mortgage.
  11. (basketball) An offensive foul in which the player with the ball moves into a stationary defender.
  12. (firearms) A measured amount of powder and/or shot in a cartridge.
  13. (by extension) A measured amount of explosive.
  1. (heraldry) An image displayed on an escutcheon.
    Hypernym: bearing
    Comeronym: field
    Near-synonym: emblem
  2. (weaponry) A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack.
    to bring a weapon to the charge
  3. (farriery) A sort of plaster or ointment.
  4. (obsolete) Weight; import; value.
  1. (historical or obsolete) A measure of thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; a charre.
  2. (ecclesiastical) An address given at a church service concluding a visitation.
  3. (slang, uncountable) Cannabis.

amount of money levied for a service

military: ground attack

accusation

electric charge

scope of responsibility

load or burden

instruction

measured amount of powder and/or shot

measured amount of explosive

sort of plaster or ointment

measure of thirty-six pigs of lead — see charre

address given at a church service concluding a visitation

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

  1. To assign a duty or responsibility to; to order.
  2. (transitive) To assign (a debit) to an account.
    Let's charge this to marketing.
  3. (ambitransitive) 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.
  4. (transitive, chiefly US) To pay on account, as by using a credit card.
    Can I charge my purchase to my credit card?
    Can I charge this purchase?
  5. (transitive, dated) To sell (something) at a given price.
    to charge coal at $5 per unit
  6. (transitive, criminal law, law enforcement) To formally accuse (a person) of a crime.
    Synonyms: criminate, inculpate, indict; see also Thesaurus:incriminate
    I'm charging you with assault and battery.
  7. (transitive, property law) To mortgage (a property).
  8. To impute or ascribe.
    Synonyms: attribute, chalk up to, put down to; see also Thesaurus:ascribe
    • 1966, Stringfellow Barr, The Mask of Jove:
      He lacked the art of wounding with the sword, and in any case his critics charged that he shrank from steel; but his invective was worthy of Demosthenes and his words drew blood.
  9. To call to account; to challenge.
  10. (transitive) To place a burden, load or responsibility on or in.
  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.
    • 1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, pages 476-477:
      Within a blue garter inscribed "Great Northern Railway Ireland" is a shield, on which are marshalled the arms of the principal towns in the company's area. The shield is divided quarterly with the arms of Dublin in the first quarter, Londonderry in the second quarter, Enniskillen in the third, and Belfast in the fourth; and overall is a gold inescutcheon (a small shield placed in the centre of the large shield) charged with the red left hand of Ulster.
  4. (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.
    Rubbing amber with wool will charge it quickly.
  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.
    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 replenish energy.
    The battery is still charging: I can't use it yet.
    His cell phone charges very quickly, whereas mine takes forever.
  4. (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 they deliver the ball, either to disrupt the length of the delivery, or to get into a better position to hit the ball.
  4. (transitive, of a hunting dog) To lie on the belly and be still. (A command given by a hunter to a dog)

to assign a duty to

to assign a debit to an account

to pay on account

to demand, require payment

criminal law, law enforcement: to formally accuse of a crime — see also accuse,‎ inculpate

property law: to mortgage — see mortgage

to place a burden upon, to assign a duty

to load equipment with material required for its use

to cause to take on an electric charge

to add energy to

intransitive: of a battery or device: to gain energy — see also energize

to move forward forcefully — see also accost

military: to attack by moving forward quickly

basketball: to commit a charging foul

cricket: to take a few steps down the pitch towards the bowler as he delivers the ball

Borrowed from Middle French charge.

charge f (plural charges, no diminutive)

  1. a charge (fast ground attack)

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

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

charge

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

charge

  1. first-person singular present indicative of chargen
    • 1470–1483 (date produced), Thom̃s Malleorre [_i.e._, Thomas Malory], “[Morte Arthur]”, in Le Morte Darthur (British Library Additional Manuscript 59678), [England: s.n.], folio 449, verso, lines 15–18:
      Than ſpake ẜ Gawayne And ſeyde brothir · ẜ Aggravayne I pray you and charge you meve no ſuch · maters no more a fore me fro wyte you well I woll nat be of youre counceyle //
      Then spoke Sir Gawain, and said, “Brother, Sir Agrivain, I pray you and charge you move not such matters any more before me, for be ye assured I will not be of your counsel.”

Borrowed from French charge.[1][2]

charge f (plural charges)

  1. (Brazil) cartoon (satire of public figures)
    Synonym: caricatura

  2. ^ “charge”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026

  3. ^ “charge”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026