trades

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of trade.

   The town once thrived on the wool and leather trades.

   Both teams completed their roster trades before the deadline.

   Note

   Only the countable uses of trade have a plural, so trades never means commerce in general. It counts individual deals, like two teams' roster trades, or names occupations and industries, as in the wool and leather trades. When the word stands alone after the, as in going into the trades, it has usually narrowed to the skilled blue-collar work.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of trade.

   The firm trades commodities across several international markets.

   She trades her lunch break for an earlier finish on Fridays.

   Note

   Two constructions are easy to miss. Trades on means exploits: someone trades on a famous name or a reputation. Trades at gives a price or condition, as with a stock that trades at a certain level. Otherwise the form covers buying and selling as well as swapping one thing for another, with or without an object.

3. 3
   nounpluralabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of building and manufacturing trades: the skilled blue-collar vocations and the workforce in them.

   After high school he went into the trades and apprenticed as an electrician.

   Labor shortages in the trades have driven wages sharply higher.

   Note

   A word that works only in the plural and almost always with the: you go into the trades or work in the trades, and the people there are tradespersons or tradesmen. It can be weighed against a college degree as a path to a career. Because the trades can also mean industry magazines or tropical winds, context does the sorting. A newsroom and a sailing ship hear different things.

4. 4
   nounpluralabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of trade winds: the steady winds blowing from the east toward the equator above and below it.

   The captain rode the trades westward and made excellent time toward the islands.

   Sailors counted on the trades for reliable passage across the tropics.

   Note

   A sailor's clipping, and its natural verb is ride: they rode the trades going west. The shortened form exists only in the plural, so a single trade never names one of these winds. The full trade winds is the safer choice whenever the setting is not plainly nautical.

5. 5
   nounpluralabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of trade publications: the industry magazines and newsletters carrying news and editorials to workers and managers in a field.

   Her appointment was announced in the trades a full week before the press release.

   Advertisers spend heavily in the trades to reach buyers within the industry.

   Note

   Industry insiders' shorthand for trade papers, trade journals and trade magazines taken together. Like the blue-collar sense, it needs the. News is said to be in the trades or all over the trades: rumors, appointments, layoffs. Outside an industry the phrase can puzzle, so for general readers the full trade publications is clearer.

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