Noun

(business) The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; especially the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.

Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.

* Macaulay:

Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser.

* 1881 , :

Suppose we held our converse not in words, but in music; those who have a bad ear would find themselves cut off from all near commerce , and no better than foreigners in this big world.

(obsolete) Sexual intercourse.

A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.

(Hoyle)

Noun

(wikipedia colloquy) (colloquies)

A conversation or dialogue.

* 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :

And she repeated the free caress into which her colloquies with Maisie almost always broke and which made the child feel that her affection at least was a gage of safety.

* '>citation

(obsolete) A formal conference.

(Christianity) A church court held by certain Reformed denominations.

A written discourse.

(legal) A discussion during a trial in which a judge ensures that the defendant understands what is taking place in the trial and what their rights are.

* {{quote-book, passage=At the end of the colloquy , Judge Spicer asked Carr whether anyone had "pressured" him into accepting the deal.

, title=The Whole Truth?: A Case of Murder on the Appalachian Trail , page=193 , author=H. L. Pohlman , pageurl=http://books.google.ca/books?id=El-CypXgpbwC&pg=PA193&dq=colloquy+judge&as_brr=0&cd=6&redir_esc=y

v=onepage&q=colloquy%20judge&f=false

, year=1999 , isbn=1-55849-165-1}}