charge

1 noun

1 PRICE (C, U) the amount of money you have to pay for goods or services: Gas charges will rise in July.

(+ for): When you buy a suit, there is no charge for any alterations. | free of charge (=at no cost): Your order will be delivered free of charge within a ten-mile limit. | at no extra charge (=without having to pay more money) -see cost 1

2 CONTROL

a) be in charge (of) to be the person who controls or is responsible for a group of people or an activity: Who's in charge around here? | the officer in charge of the investigation

-see control 1

b) put sb in charge (of) to give someone complete responsibility over an activity, group of people, organization etc: I've been put in charge of the team.

c) take charge (of) to take control of a situation, organization, or group of people: Harry will take charge of the department while I'm away.

3 RESPONSIBILITY/CARE FOR

a) be in/under sb's charge if someone or something is in your charge, you are responsible for looking after them: The child was in my charge when he ran away. | The files were left in your charge.

b) (C) formal someone that you are responsible for looking after: Sarah bought some chocolate for her three young charges.

4 THAT SB IS GUILTY (C) an official statement made by the police saying that someone is guilty of a crime

(+ against): The charge against her was arson. | on a charge: Young appeared in court on a murder charge. | charge of burglary/theft/fraud etc: Owen is facing a charge of armed robbery. | bring/press/prefer charges (=state officially that someone is guilty of a crime): As it was his first offence, the store agreed not to press charges. | drop the charges (=decide to stop making charges)

5 BLAME (C) a written or spoken statement blaming someone for doing something bad or illegal; allegation: the charge of being an uncaring mother | a group which earlier rejected the charge that it had put undue pressure on the Prime Minister | counter a charge (=say that a charge is untrue) | lay/leave yourself open to a charge of (=be likely to be blamed for something): The procedures the doctor followed laid him open to charges of negligence.

6 ATTACK (C) an attack in which soldiers, wild animals etc rush with great force against someone

7 ELECTRICAL FORCE (U) an electrical force that is put into a piece of electrical equipment such as a battery (1): on charge (=taking in a charge of electricity): Leave the battery on charge all night.

8 EXPLOSIVE (C) an amount of explosive, especially the amount needed to work successfully

9 STRENGTH OF FEELINGS (U) the power of strong feelings: a novel with a strong emotional charge

10 get a charge out of sth AmE to be excited by something and enjoy it very much: I got a real charge out of seeing my niece take her first steps.

11 AN ORDER TO DO STH (C) formal an order to do something: a charge to do sth: The old servant fulfilled his master's charge to care for the children.

-see also: reverse the charges reverse 1 (5) 2 verb

1 MONEY

a) (I, T) to ask someone a certain amount of money for something you are selling: charge sb $10/$50 etc (for sth): The restaurant charged us $40 for the wine.

(+ for): We won't charge for delivery if you pay now.

b) charge sth to sb's account to record the cost of something on someone's account, so that they can pay for it later: Charge the room to the company's account.

c) (T) AmE to pay for something with a credit card: I charged the shoes on Visa. | charge it: "Do you have enough cash for that?" "No, but I can charge it."

2 RUSH/ATTACK

a) (I, T) to deliberately rush quickly towards someone or something in order to attack them

(+ at/towards/into): a three-ton rhino charging towards us | charge sb: We drew our swords and charged the enemy.

b) (intransitive always+ adv/prep) to deliberately run or walk somewhere quickly

(+ around/through/out etc): At playtime, the children charged wildly out of the building.

3 WITH A CRIME (T) to state officially that someone is guilty of a crime: be charged with: The man they arrested last night has been charged with murder.

4 BLAME SB (T) formal to say publicly that you think someone has done something wrong: charge that: Labour's Bryan Gould charged that Mr. Mellor acted `improperly'.

5 ELECTRICITY (I, T) if a battery charges or if you charge it, it takes in and stores electricity: If the light comes on, the battery isn't charging.

6 ORDER SB (T) formal to order someone to do something or make them responsible for it: be charged with doing sth: The commission is charged with investigating all the alleged breaches of the rules.

7 GUN (T) old use to load a gun

8 GLASS (T) formal to fill a glass: Charge your glasses and drink a toast to the happy couple.