trade

«trade» in Mova's school dictionary: the buying and selling of goods between people, shops or… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (trade, trades); verb (trade, trades, traded, trading)

meaning for a pupil

1) Trade is the buying and selling of goods between people, shops or countries. tree →

2) To trade is to swap one thing for another. tree →

3) A trade is a job that needs skill with the hands, like a plumber or electrician. tree →

4) A trade is a single swap or deal. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history and geography lessons trade explains why towns grew by rivers and ports, and how countries sell goods to each other (trade routes, the Silk Road, fair trade). In the playground children trade cards and stickers. Phrases: trade in, trade for, fair trade, trade route, by trade (a carpenter by trade), trade places.

examples

• I traded my apple for her biscuit. tree →
• Ancient ships carried trade across the sea. tree →
• The Vikings traded furs and silver. tree →
• Do you want to trade cards? tree →
• My uncle is a builder by trade. tree →
• That was a fair trade. tree →
• Fair trade chocolate gives farmers a better price. tree →
• Dad traded in his old car for a new one. tree →
• You yourself asked me my trade. tree →

note

Verb is regular (traded). As «buying and selling» trade is uncountable; as «a swap» or «a job» it is countable (a good trade, skilled trades). In a swap problem nothing is added or lost — the totals stay the same, only who owns what changes. A trade is fair when both sides think they got about the same value.

In the corpora

• Many lorises are caught illegally for the pet trade and have their teeth pulled out; all lorises are protected by international law.
• Oranges came from Asia and spread along trade routes; in English the colour orange was named after the fruit.
• He is not a deep-ocean sailor: «I'm in the coasting trade, and rarely out of sight of land.
• Long before ancient Britons traded there, he says, Taffy and her Daddy had their home on that down.
• Only trade game items through official in-game trading; outside trades are often scams where you give and get nothing.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «trade» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.