


TRACT'ILE, a. [L. tractus.]

Capable of being drawn out in length; ductile. Bodies are traclile or intractile. Bacon.


The quality of being tractile; ductility. Derham.

TRAC'TION, n. [L. tractus, traho.]

  1. The act of drawing, or state of being drawn; as, the traction of a muscle. Holder.
  2. Attraction; a drawing toward. Cyc.


Treating of, handling.


That which draws, or is used for drawing. Journ. of Science.

TRACT'O-RY, or TRACT'RIX, n. [L. traho.]

A curve whose tangent is always equal to a given line.

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.]

  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.

TRADE, v.i.

  1. To barter, or to buy and sell; to deal in the exchange, purchase or sale of goods, wares and merchandise, or any thing else; to traffick; to carry on commerce as a business. Thus American merchants trade with the English at London and at Liverpool; they trade with the French at Havre and Bordeaux, and they trade with Canada. The country shopkeepers trade with London merchants. Our banks are permitted to trade in bills of exchange.
  2. To buy and sell or exchange property, in a single instance. Thus we say, a man treats with another for his farm, but can not trade with him. A. traded with B. for a horse or a number of sheep.
  3. To act merely for money. How did you dare / To trade and traffick with Macbeth? Shak.
  4. To have a trade wind. They on the trading flood ply tow'rd the pole. [Unusual.] Milton.

TRADE, v.t.

To sell or exchange in commerce. They traded the persons of men. Ezek. xxvii. [This, I apprehend, must be a mistake; at least it is not to be vindicated as a legitimate use of the verb.]


Versed; practiced. [Not in use.] Shak.


Commercial; busy in traffick. Spenser.


One engaged in trade or commerce; a dealer in buying and selling or barter; as, a trader to the East Indies; a trader to Canada; a country trader.


An auction by and for booksellers.


People employed in trade. [Not in use.] Swift.

TRADES-MAN, n. [trade and man.]

A shopkeeper. A merchant is called a trader, but not a tradesman. Johnson. [In America, a shopkeeper is usually called a retailer.]


A woman who trades or is skilled in trade.

TRADE-WIND, n. [trade and wind.]

A wind that favors trade. A trade wind is a wind that blows constantly in the same direction, or a wind that blows for a number of months in one direction, and then changing, blows as long in the opposite direction. These winds in the East Indies are called monsoons, which are periodical. On the Atlantic, within the tropics, the trade winds blow constantly from the eastward to the westward.


The act or business of carrying on commerce.

TRAD-ING, ppr.

  1. Trafficking; exchanging commodities by barter, or buying and selling them.
  2. adj. Carrying on commerce; as, a trading company.

TRA-DI'TION, n. [Fr. from L. traditio, from trado, to deliver.]

  1. Delivery; the act of delivering into the hands of another. A deed takes effect only from the tradition or delivery. Blackstone. The sale of a movable is completed by simple tradition. Cyc.
  3. That which is handed down from age to age by oral communication. The Jews pay great regard to tradition in matters of religion, as do the Romanists. Protestants reject the authority of tradition in sacred things, and rely only on the written word. Traditions may be good or bad, true or false. Stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. 2 Thess. ii. Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your traditions? Matth. xv.


  1. Delivered orally from father to son; communicated from ancestors to descendants by word only; transmitted from age to age without writing; as, traditional opinions; traditional evidence; the traditional expositions of the Scriptures. The reveries of the Talmud, a collection of Jewish traditionary interpolations, are unrivaled in the regions of absurdity. Buckminster.
  2. Observant of tradition. [Not used.]


By transmission from father to son, or from age to age; as, an opinion or doctrine traditionally derived from the Apostles, is of no authority.


By tradition. Dwight.




One who adheres to tradition. Gregory.