Part 176

The king gave cherge concerning Absalom. 2. Sam. xviii. 5.

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. Whewell.

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. Holland.

The charge of the light brigade. Tennyson.

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. [Cf. Charre.] 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. Shak.

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.

Syn. -- Care; custody; trust; management; office; expense; cost; price; assault; attack; onset; injunction; command; order; mandate; instruction; accusation; indictment.

Charge"a*ble (?), a. 1. That may be charged, laid, imposed, or imputes; as, a duty chargeable on iron; a fault chargeable on a man.

2. Subject to be charge or accused; liable or responsible; as, revenues chargeable with a claim; a man chargeable with murder.

3. Serving to create expense; costly; burdensome.

That we might not be chargeable to any of you. 2. Thess. iii. 8.

For the sculptures, which are elegant, were very chargeable. Evelyn.

Charge"a*ble*ness, n. The quality of being chargeable or expensive. [Obs.] Whitelocke.

Charge"a*bly (?), adv. At great cost; expensively. [Obs.]

Char"geant (?), a. [F. chargeant, fr. charger to load.] Burdensome; troublesome. [Obs.] Chaucer.

||Char`gÚ" d'af`faires" (?), n.; pl. ChargÚs d'affaires. [F., "charged with affairs."] A diplomatic representative, or minister of an inferior grade, accredited by the government of one state to the minister of foreign affairs of another; also, a substitute, ad interim, for an ambassador or minister plenipotentiary.