Charging

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒɪŋ/

Definitions

1. Requesting money as a price for goods or services ; moving forward rapidly to attack or confront ; formally accusing someone of wrongdoing
2. Asking for a fee or payment ; advancing aggressively towards a target ; blaming someone for a fault or crime
3. Setting a price that must be paid ; rushing headlong for an offensive action ; stating that someone is responsible for an offense

Etymology: The verb "charge" began as a plain wagon word. Its ancestor, Latin "carrus", meant a car or wagon, and Late Latin "carricāre" meant to load a vehicle. Old French turned that into "chargier", meaning to load or burden, and Middle English borrowed it as "chargen" with the same sense of putting a weight onto something. The idea of loading goods onto a cart is what all later meanings grew from. From loading, the verb spread into a crowd of senses: to entrust a duty to someone, to accuse, to attack, and to demand a price. The money sense is simply a burden placed on a buyer: you load a cost onto the customer, and asking for payment is the act of setting that load down. "Charging" is the same word in its -ing form, so it carries that whole wagon-loading history with it. "Cargo" is a doublet of "charge", since it came into English from the same Latin root by a different route.

Synonyms: billing, demanding, accusing, assaulting, attacking

Antonyms: defending, retreating, withdrawing, abandoning, releasing