Charge (chärj), v. t.
[imp. & p. p. Charged (chärjd);
p. pr. & vb. n. Charging.] [OF.
chargier, F. charger, fr. LL. carricare, fr.
L. carrus wagon. Cf. Cargo, Caricature,
Cark, and see Car.] 1. To lay
on or impose, as a load, tax, or burden; to load; to
fill.
A carte that charged was with hay.
Chaucer.
The charging of children's memories with
rules.
Locke.
2. To lay on or impose, as a task, duty,
or trust; to command, instruct, or exhort with authority; to
enjoin; to urge earnestly; as, to charge a jury; to
charge the clergy of a diocese; to charge an
agent.
Moses . . . charged you to love the Lord
your God.
Josh. xxii. 5.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away
ambition.
Shak.
3. To lay on, impose, or make subject to
or liable for.
When land shall be charged by any lien.
Kent.
4. To fix or demand as a price; as, he
charges two dollars a barrel for apples.
5. To place something to the account of
as a debt; to debit, as, to charge one with goods. Also,
to enter upon the debit side of an account; as, to charge
a sum to one.
6. To impute or ascribe; to lay to one's
charge.
No more accuse thy pen, but charge the
crime
On native sloth and negligence of time.
Dryden.
7. To accuse; to make a charge or
assertion against (a person or thing); to lay the responsibility
(for something said or done) at the door of.
If he did that wrong you charge him
with.
Tennyson.
8. To place within or upon any firearm,
piece of apparatus or machinery, the quantity it is intended and
fitted to hold or bear; to load; to fill; as, to charge a
gun; to charge an electrical machine, etc.
Their battering cannon charged to the
mouths.
Shak.
9. To ornament with or cause to bear; as,
to charge an architectural member with a
molding.
10. (Her.) To assume as a bearing;
as, he charges three roses or; to add to or represent on;
as, he charges his shield with three roses or.
11. To call to account; to
challenge. [Obs.]
To charge me to an answer.
Shak.
12. To bear down upon; to rush upon; to
attack.
Charged our main battle's front.
Shak.
Syn. -- To intrust; command; exhort; instruct; accuse;
impeach; arraign. See Accuse.
Charge (?), v. i.
1. To make an onset or rush; as, to
charge with fixed bayonets.
Like your heroes of antiquity, he charges
in iron.
Glanvill.
"Charge for the guns!" he said.
Tennyson.
2. To demand a price; as, to
charge high for goods.
3. To debit on an account; as, to
charge for purchases.
4. To squat on its belly and be still; --
a command given by a sportsman to a dog.
Charge (?), n. [F. charge,
fr. charger to load. See Charge, v.
t., and cf. Cargo, Caricature.]
1. A load or burder laid upon a person or
thing.
2. A person or thing commited or
intrusted to the care, custody, or management of another; a
trust.
&fist; The people of a parish or church are called the
charge of the clergyman who is set over them.
3. Custody or care of any person, thing,
or place; office; responsibility; oversight; obigation;
duty.
'Tis a great charge to come under one
body's hand.
Shak.
4. Heed; care; anxiety; trouble.
[Obs.] Chaucer.
5. Harm. [Obs.]
Chaucer.
6. An order; a mandate or command; an
injunction.
The king gave cherge concerning
Absalom.
2. Sam. xviii. 5.
7. An address (esp. an earnest or
impressive address) containing instruction or exhortation; as,
the charge of a judge to a jury; the charge of a
bishop to his clergy.
8. An accusation of a wrong of offense;
allegation; indictment; specification of something
alleged.
The charge of confounding very different
classes of phenomena.
Whewell.
9. Whatever constitutes a burden on
property, as rents, taxes, lines, etc.; costs; expense incurred;
-- usually in the plural.
10. The price demanded for a thing or
service.
11. An entry or a account of that which
is due from one party to another; that which is debited in a
business transaction; as, a charge in an account
book.
12. That quantity, as of ammunition,
electricity, ore, fuel, etc., which any apparatus, as a gun,
battery, furnace, machine, etc., is intended to receive and
fitted to hold, or which is actually in it at one time
13. The act of rushing upon, or towards,
an enemy; a sudden onset or attack, as of troops, esp. cavalry;
hence, the signal for attack; as, to sound the
charge.
Never, in any other war afore, gave the Romans a
hotter charge upon the enemies.
Holland.
The charge of the light brigade.
Tennyson.
14. A position (of a weapon) fitted for
attack; as, to bring a weapon to the charge.
15. (Far.) A sort of plaster or
ointment.
16. (Her.) A bearing. See
Bearing, n., 8.
17. [Cf. Charre.] Thirty-six pigs
of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; -- called also
charre.
18. Weight; import; value.
Many suchlike "as's" of great charge.
Shak.
Back charge. See under Back,
a. -- Bursting charge.
(a (Mil.) The charge which bursts a
shell, etc. (b (Mining) A small
quantity of fine powder to secure the ignition of a charge of
coarse powder in blasting. -- Charge and
discharge (Equity Practice), the old mode or
form of taking an account before a master in chancery. --
Charge sheet, the paper on which are
entered at a police station all arrests and accusations. --
To sound the charge, to give the signal for
an attack.
Syn. -- Care; custody; trust; management; office;
expense; cost; price; assault; attack; onset; injunction;
command; order; mandate; instruction; accusation; indictment.
