Etimology
From Middle English companye (“a team; companionship”), from Old French compaignie (“companionship”) (Modern French: compagnie), possibly from Late Latin *compania, but this word is not attested. Old French compaignie is equivalent to Old French compaignon (Modern French: compagnon) + -ie. More at companion. Displaced native Old English werod, gefer, getæl, and hired.
noun
company (countable and uncountable, plural companies)
A team; a group of people who work together professionally.
A small group of birds or animals.
(law) An entity having legal personality, and thus able to own property and to sue and be sued in its own name; a corporation.
(business) Any business, whether incorporated or not, that manufactures or sells products (also known as goods), or provides services as a commercial venture.
(uncountable) Social visitors or companions.
(uncountable) Companionship.
Examples
a company of actors
the boys in Company C
It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.
It took six companies to put out the fire.
As he had worked for the CIA for over 30 years, he would soon take retirement from the company.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:enterprise
“ […] That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. […] If she had her way, she’d ruin the company inside a year with her hare-brained schemes; love of the people, and that sort of guff.”
In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
Keep the house clean; I have company coming.
Come, O thou Traveller unknown, / Whom still I hold, but cannot see! / My company before is gone, / And I am left alone with Thee; / With Thee all night I mean to stay, / And wrestle till the break of day.
At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]
The departure was not unduly prolonged. In the road Mr. Love and the driver favoured the company with a brief chanty running. “Got it?—No, I ain't, 'old on,—Got it? Got it?—No, 'old on sir.”
I treasure your company.
He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
Related words
synonyms
(in legal context, a corporation): corporation
(group of individuals with a common purpose): association, companionship, fellowship, organization, society
(companionship): fellowship, friendship, mateship
hyponyms
British East India Company
fast company
fire company
growth company
holding company
incorporated company
insurance company
investment company
joint-stock company
limited liability company
listed company
livery company
management company
mixed company
mutual company
offshore company
parent company
private company
quoted company
shell company
ship's company
sister company
stock company
title company
touring company
trust company
zombie company
related terms
accompany
companion
discompany
verb
company (third-person singular simple present companies, present participle companying, simple past and past participle companied)
(archaic, transitive) To accompany, keep company with.
(archaic, intransitive) To associate.
(obsolete, intransitive) To be a lively, cheerful companion.
(obsolete, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse.
Examples
Ye dooe knowe howe thatt hytt ys an vnlawefull thynge for a man beynge a iewe to company or come vnto an alient […] .
it was with a distinctly fallen countenance that his father hearkened to his mother's parenthetical request to “’bide hyar an’ company leetle Moses whilst I be a-milkin’ the cow.”
Men which have companied with us all the time.
If thee list unto the Court to throng […] there thou needs must learne, to laugh, to lie, To face, to forge, to scoffe, to companie.
companying with Infidels may not be simply condemned
Related words
synonyms
(to accompany): attend, escort, go with
(to have sexual intercourse): fornicate, have sex, make love; see also Thesaurus:copulate