Charge n. 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. Note: 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."
4.Heed; care; anxiety; trouble. (Obs.)
6.An order; a mandate or command; an injunction. "The king gave cherge concerning Absalom."
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."
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." "The charge of the light brigade."
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.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."
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.
Synonyms: Care; custody; trust; management; office; expense; cost; price; assault; attack; onset; injunction; command; order; mandate; instruction; accusation; indictment.
