Merchant

//ˈmɝt͡ʃənt// name, noun, verb, slang

name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who traffics in commodities for profit.
  2. 2
    a businessperson engaged in retail trade wordnet
  3. 3
    The owner or operator of a retail business.
  4. 4
    A trading vessel; a merchantman.

    "Every day, some sailor's wife, / The masters of some merchant, and the merchant, / Have just our theme of woe."

  5. 5
    Someone who is noted for a stated type of activity or behaviour. derogatory, informal, sometimes

    "He's some kind of speed merchant — he drives way too fast."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A supercargo. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    As a resident of a region, to buy goods from a non-resident and sell them to another non-resident.

    "a merchanting service"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
traderagentbaronbrokerbusinessbusinessman

Example

More examples

"The rich merchant adopted the boy and made him his heir."

Etymology

From Middle English marchaunt, from Anglo-Norman marchaunt, from mercans, from the verb mercor (“I trade, deal, sell”).

Related phrases

Happy MerchantTurkey merchantcaper merchantcoal merchantcountry merchantdole merchantfanny merchantfeather merchanthop merchantknockout merchantlaw merchantmerchant bank

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.