1. To impose a duty, responsibility, or obligation on: charged him with the task of watching the young swimmers.

2. To set or ask (a given amount) as a price: charges ten dollars for a haircut.

3. To hold financially liable; demand payment from: charged her for the balance due.

4. To postpone payment on (a purchase) by recording as a debt: paid cash for the stockings but charged the new coat.

5. a. To load to capacity; fill: charge a furnace with coal. b. To saturate; impregnate: The atmosphere was charged with tension.

6. To load (a gun or other firearm) with a quantity of explosive: charged the musket with powder.

7. To instruct or urge authoritatively; command: charged her not to reveal the source of information.

8. Law. To instruct (a jury) about the law, its application, and the weighing of evidence.

9. To make a claim of wrongdoing against; accuse or blame: The police charged him with car theft. Critics charged the writer with a lack of originality.

10. To put the blame for; attribute or impute: charged the accident to the driver's inexperience.

11. To attack violently: The troops charged the enemy line.

12. Electricity. a. To cause formation of a net electric charge on or in (a conductor, for example). b. To energize (a storage battery) by passing current through it in the direction opposite to discharge.

13. To excite; rouse: a speaker who knows how to charge up a crowd.

14. To direct or put (a weapon) into position for use; level.

15. Heraldry. To place a bearing on.

1. To rush forward in or as if in a violent attack: dogs trained to charge at intruders; children charging through the house.

2. To demand or ask payment: did not charge for the second cup of coffee.

3. To postpone payment for a purchase.

4. Accounting. To consider or record as a loss. Often used with off.

1. Abbr. chg. a. Expense; cost. b. The price asked for something: no charge for window-shopping.

2. a. A weight or burden; a load: a freighter relieved of its charge of cargo. b. The quantity that a container or apparatus can hold.

3. A quantity of explosive to be set off at one time.

4. An assigned duty or task; a responsibility: The commission's charge was to determine the facts.

5. One that is entrusted to another's care or management: the baby sitter's three young charges.

6. a. Supervision; management: the scientist who had overall charge of the research project. b. Care; custody: a child put in my charge.

7. An order, a command, or an injunction.

8. Law. Instruction given by a judge to a jury about the law, its application, and the weighing of evidence.

9. A claim of wrongdoing; an accusation: a charge of murder; pleaded not guilty to the charges.

10. a. A rushing, forceful attack: repelled the charge of enemy troops; the charge of a herd of elephants. b. The command to attack: The bugler sounded the charge.

11. Abbr. chg. A debt or an entry in an account recording a debt: Are you paying cash or is this a charge?

12. Abbr. chg. A financial burden, such as a tax or lien.

13. Symbol q Physics. a. The intrinsic property of matter responsible for all electric phenomena, in particular for the force of the electromagnetic interaction, occurring in two forms arbitrarily designated negative and positive. b. A measure of this property. c. The net measure of this property possessed by a body or contained in a bounded region of space.

14. Informal. A feeling of pleasant excitement; a thrill: got a real charge out of the movie.

15. Heraldry. A bearing or figure.

1. In a position of leadership or supervision: the security agent in charge at the airport.

2. Chiefly British. Under arrest.