Definition of charge

• v. t. - To lay on or impose, as a load, tax, or burden; to load; to fill.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To lay on, impose, or make subject to or liable for.
• v. t. - To fix or demand as a price; as, he charges two dollars a barrel for apples.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To impute or ascribe; to lay to one's charge.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To ornament with or cause to bear; as, to charge an architectural member with a molding.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To call to account; to challenge.
• v. t. - To bear down upon; to rush upon; to attack.
• v. i. - To make an onset or rush; as, to charge with fixed bayonets.
• v. i. - To demand a price; as, to charge high for goods.
• v. i. - To debit on an account; as, to charge for purchases.
• v. i. - To squat on its belly and be still; -- a command given by a sportsman to a dog.
• v. t. - A load or burder laid upon a person or thing.
• v. t. - A person or thing commited or intrusted to the care, custody, or management of another; a trust.
• v. t. - Custody or care of any person, thing, or place; office; responsibility; oversight; obigation; duty.
• v. t. - Heed; care; anxiety; trouble.
• v. t. - Harm.
• v. t. - An order; a mandate or command; an injunction.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - An accusation of a wrong of offense; allegation; indictment; specification of something alleged.
• v. t. - Whatever constitutes a burden on property, as rents, taxes, lines, etc.; costs; expense incurred; -- usually in the plural.
• v. t. - The price demanded for a thing or service.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - 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
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack; as, to bring a weapon to the charge.
• v. t. - A soft of plaster or ointment.
• v. t. - A bearing. See Bearing, n., 8.
• n. - Thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; -- called also charre.
• n. - Weight; import; value.