Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TRADE, n. [Sp. and Port. trato; tratar, to handle, to trade; It. tratta, trattare; from L. tracto, to handle, use, treat. The Fr. traite, traiter, are the same words.]

1. The act or business of exchanging commodities by barter; or the business of buying and selling for money; commerce; traffick; barter. Trade comprehends every species of exchange or dealing, either in the produce of land, in manufactures, in bills or money. It is however chiefly used to denote the barter or purchase and sale of goods, wares and merchandise, either by wholesale or retail. Trade is either foreign, or domestic or inland. Foreign trade consists in the exportation and importation of goods, or the exchange of the commodities of different countries. Domestic or home trade is the exchange or buying and selling of goods within a country. Trade is also by the wholesale, that is, by the package or in large quantities, or it is by retail, or in small parcels. The carrying trade is that of transporting commodities from one country to another by water.
2. The business which a person has learned and which he carries on for procuring subsistence or for profit; occupation; particularly, mechanical employment; distinguished from the liberal arts and learned professions, and from agriculture. Thus we speak of the trade of a smith, of a carpenter or mason. But we never say, the trade of a farmer or of a lawyer or physician.
3. Business pursued; occupation; in contempt; as, piracy is their trade. Hunting their sport, and plund'ring was their trade. Dryden.
4. Instruments of any occupation. The shepherd bears / His house and household goods, his trade of war. Dryden.
5. Employment not manual; habitual exercise. Bacon.
6. Custom; habit; standing practice. Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade. Shak.
7. Men engaged in the same occupation. Thus booksellers speak of the customs of the trade.