Etimology
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.
noun
charge (countable and uncountable, plural charges)
The amount of money levied for a service.
(military) A ground attack against a prepared enemy.
A forceful forward movement.
An accusation.
(electromagnetism, chemistry) An electric charge.
The scope of someone's responsibility.
Someone or something entrusted to one's care, such as a child to a babysitter or a student to a teacher.
A load or burden; cargo.
An instruction.
(property law) A mortgage.
(basketball) An offensive foul in which the player with the ball moves into a stationary defender.
(firearms) A measured amount of powder and/or shot in a cartridge.
(by extension) A measured amount of explosive.
(heraldry) An image displayed on an escutcheon.
(weaponry) A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack.
(farriery) A sort of plaster or ointment.
(obsolete) Weight; import; value.
(historical or obsolete) A measure of thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; a charre.
(ecclesiastical) An address given at a church service concluding a visitation.
(slang, uncountable) Cannabis.
Examples
There will be a charge of five dollars.
Pickett's Charge; the Charge of the Light Brigade
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
Synonym: count
two charges of manslaughter
"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."
That's a slanderous charge of abuse of trust.
we'll nail the sophist to it, if we can get him on that charge;
A charge often leveled against organic agriculture is that it is more philosophy than science.
The child was in the nanny's charge.
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.
The child was a charge of the nanny.
The ship had a charge of colonists and their belongings.
I gave him the charge to get the deal closed by the end of the month.
Watt might have broken the door down, with an axe, or a crow, or a small charge of explosive, but this might have aroused Erskine's suspicions, and Watt did not want that.
to bring a weapon to the charge
many suchlike as's of great charge
At about the same time I went off pills and started smoking charge marijuana, you know.
It had been a false alarm, and £2 worth of charge had gone out of the window.
verb
charge (third-person singular simple present charges, present participle charging, simple past and past participle charged)
To assign a duty or responsibility to.
(transitive) To assign (a debit) to an account.
(transitive) To pay on account, as by using a credit card.
(transitive, intransitive) To require payment (of) (a price or fee, for goods, services, etc.).
(transitive, dated) To sell (something) at a given price.
(transitive, criminal law, law enforcement) To formally accuse (a person) of a crime.
(transitive, property law) To mortgage (a property).
To impute or ascribe.
To call to account; to challenge.
(transitive) To place a burden, load or responsibility on or in.
(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.
(intransitive) To move forward quickly and forcefully, particularly in combat and/or on horseback.
(transitive, of a hunting dog) To lie on the belly and be still. (A command given by a hunter to a dog)
Examples
Moses […] charged you to love the Lord your God.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition.
Let's charge this to marketing.
Can I charge my purchase to my credit card?
Can I charge this purchase?
to charge high for goods
I won't charge you for the wheat.
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.
to charge coal at $5 per unit
I'm charging you with assault and battery.
No more accuse thy pen, but charge the crime / On native sloth, and negligence of time.
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.
to charge me to an answer
the charging of children's memories […] with rules
[H]er grandfather […] charged her as she valued her life never to mention that again […]
[A] huge torrent of boiling black mud, charged with blocks of rock and moving with enormous rapidity, rolled like an avalanche down the gorge.
to charge an architectural member with a moulding
He charges three roses.
He charges his shield with three roses or.
Charge your weapons; we're moving up.
their battering cannon charged to the mouths
Rubbing amber with wool will charge it quickly.
He charged the battery overnight.
Don't forget to charge the drill.
I charge my phone every night.
The battery is still charging: I can't use it yet.
His cell phone charges very quickly, whereas mine takes forever.
Faced with an enemy whose largest gun turrets weigh more than the entire ship, Johnston decides that running is boring, and instead pulls a full 180-degree turn and charges straight back at the attacking forces.
The impetuous corps charged the enemy lines.
My Lord, we haue diſcouered the enemieReadie to Charge you with a mightie army.
Related words
related terms
carack
cargo
caricature
cark
discharge
surcharge