charge

Meanings

Noun

• The amount of money levied for a service.
• A ground attack against a prepared enemy.
• A forceful forward movement.
• An accusation.
• An electric charge.
• The scope of someone's responsibility.
• Someone or something entrusted to one's care, such as a child to a babysitter or a student to a teacher.
• A load or burden; cargo.
• An instruction.
• An offensive foul in which the player with the ball moves into a stationary defender.
• A measured amount of powder and/or shot in a cartridge.
• A measured amount of explosive.
• An image displayed on an escutcheon.
• A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack.
• A sort of plaster or ointment.
• Weight; import; value.
• A measure of thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; a charre.
• An address given at a church service concluding a visitation.

Verb

• To assign a duty or responsibility to.
• To assign (a debit) to an account.
• To pay on account, by using a credit card.
• To require payment (of) (a price or fee, for goods, services, etc.).
• To sell at a given price.
• To formally accuse (a person) of a crime.
• To impute or ascribe.
• To call to account; to challenge.
• To place a burden, load or responsibility on or in.
• To load equipment with material required for its use, as a firearm with powder, a fire hose with water, a chemical reactor with raw materials.
• To move forward quickly and forcefully, particularly in combat and/or on horseback.
• To lie on the belly and be still.

Origin

• From Middle English chargen, from Old French chargier, from Medieval Latin carricō, from Latin carrus; see car. cargo.