1. A public gathering held for buying and selling merchandise.
2. A place where goods are offered for sale.
3. A store or shop that sells a particular type of merchandise: a vegetable market.
4. 1. The business of buying and selling a specified commodity: the soybean market.
   2. A market price.
   3. A geographic region considered as a place for sales: grain for the foreign market; the West Coast market.
   4. A subdivision of a population considered as buyers: cosmetics for the upscale market.
5. The opportunity to buy or sell; extent of demand for merchandise: a big market for gourmet foods.
6. 1. An exchange for buying and selling stocks or commodities: securities sold on the New York market.
   2. The entire enterprise of buying and selling commodities and securities: The market has been slow recently.

1. To offer for sale.
2. To sell.

1. To deal in a market.
2. To buy household supplies: We marketed for a special Sunday dinner.

in the market

1. Interested in buying: We are in the market for a used car.

1. Available for buying: Many kinds of seasonal flowers are on the market.
2. Up for sale: They put the family business on the market.

[Middle English, from Old North French, from Vulgar Latin *marcātus, from Latin mercātus, from past participle of mercārī, to buy, from merx, merc-, merchandise.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.