Regrates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Purchases large quantities of provisions to resell at a profit ; shapes or roughens the face of a stone by chiselling it
2. Buys up supplies in bulk in order to sell them again at inflated prices ; trims or dresses the surface of a block of stone
3. Gathers up goods to hike their price when reselling them ; works over a stone surface with a tool to make it rough or even

Etymology: "Regrates" is the third-person singular form of "regrate," a verb meaning to buy up supplies, especially food, so as to resell them at a higher price. The verb comes from Old French "regratter," meaning "to scrape again," and the sense of scraping is the key to its history. Scraping was the medieval image for trimming and paring goods, and a "regrater" was a dealer who bought up provisions and resold them at a profit, as though skimming off the surface of the market. Because of its shape, "regrate" looks like "re-" attached to "grate," as if it meant to grate again. That surface analysis is misleading. The French verb "regratter" was built on a different base, not on the English word "grate," so the resemblance is a coincidence of spelling. The word's real meaning lies in the French sense of scraping and trading, not in the modern verb for shredding cheese.

Synonyms: engross, forestall, monopolize