Charge

English Meaning

To lay on or impose, as a load, tax, or burden; to load; to fill.

1. To impose a duty, responsibility, or obligation on: charged him with the task of watching the young swimmers.
2. To set or ask (a given amount) as a price: charges ten dollars for a haircut.
3. To hold financially liable; demand payment from: charged her for the balance due.
4. To postpone payment on (a purchase) by recording as a debt: paid cash for the stockings but charged the new coat.
5. To load to capacity; fill: charge a furnace with coal.
6. To saturate; impregnate: The atmosphere was charged with tension.
7. To load (a gun or other firearm) with a quantity of explosive: charged the musket with powder.
8. To instruct or urge authoritatively; command: charged her not to reveal the source of information.
9. Law To instruct (a jury) about the law, its application, and the weighing of evidence.
10. To make a claim of wrongdoing against; accuse or blame: The police charged him with car theft. Critics charged the writer with a lack of originality.
11. To put the blame for; attribute or impute: charged the accident to the driver's inexperience.
12. To attack violently: The troops charged the enemy line.
13. Basketball To bump or run into (a defender) illegally while in possession of the ball or having just made a pass or shot.
14. Sports To bump (an opponent) so as to knock off balance or gain control of the ball, as in soccer.
15. Sports To body-check (an opponent) illegally, from behind or after taking more than two strides, as in ice hockey.
16. Electricity To cause formation of a net electric charge on or in (a conductor, for example).
17. Electricity To energize (a storage battery) by passing current through it in the direction opposite to discharge.
18. To excite; rouse: a speaker who knows how to charge up a crowd.
19. To direct or put (a weapon) into position for use; level.
20. Heraldry To place a charge on (an escutcheon).
21. To rush forward in or as if in a violent attack: dogs trained to charge at intruders; children charging through the house.
22. To demand or ask payment: did not charge for the second cup of coffee.
23. To postpone payment for a purchase.
24. Accounting To consider or record as a loss. Often used with off.
25. Expense; cost.
26. The price asked for something: no charge for window-shopping.
27. A weight or burden; a load: a freighter relieved of its charge of cargo.
28. The quantity that a container or apparatus can hold.
29. A quantity of explosive to be set off at one time.
30. An assigned duty or task; a responsibility: The commission's charge was to determine the facts.
31. One that is entrusted to another's care or management: the baby sitter's three young charges.
32. Supervision; management: the scientist who had overall charge of the research project.
33. Care; custody: a child put in my charge.
34. An order, command, or injunction.
35. Law Instruction given by a judge to a jury about the law, its application, and the weighing of evidence.
36. A claim of wrongdoing; an accusation: a charge of murder; pleaded not guilty to the charges.
37. A rushing, forceful attack: repelled the charge of enemy troops; the charge of a herd of elephants.
38. The command to attack: The bugler sounded the charge.
39. A debt or an entry in an account recording a debt: Are you paying cash or is this a charge?
40. A financial burden, such as a tax or lien.
41. Physics The intrinsic property of matter responsible for all electric phenomena, in particular for the force of the electromagnetic interaction, occurring in two forms arbitrarily designated negative and positive.
42. Physics A measure of this property.
43. Physics The net measure of this property possessed by a body or contained in a bounded region of space.
44. Informal A feeling of pleasant excitement; a thrill: got a real charge out of the movie.
45. Heraldry Any figure or device represented on the field of an escutcheon.
46. in charge In a position of leadership or supervision: the security agent in charge at the airport.
47. in charge Chiefly British Under arrest.
48. in charge of Having control over or responsibility for: You're in charge of making the salad.