Forms: (? 4 schange), 5, 7 eschange, 6 exchaunge, 6– exchange. [a. OF. eschangier (mod.F. échanger):—late L. excambiāre, f. ex- (see EX- pref.1) + cambiāre: see CHANGE v.]
1. trans. To change away; to dispose of (commodities, possessions, etc.) by exchange or barter; to give, relinquish or lose (something) whilst receiving something else in return. Also absol.
1484. Caxton, Curiall (1888), 13. They selle, bye or exchange somtyme theyr rentes or propre vestementis.
1545. Act 37 Hen. VIII., c. 9 § 5. The Wares … so bargained, sold, exchanged or shifted.
1611. Bible, Ezek. xlviii. 14. They shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the first fruits of the land.
1808. Hoyle’s Game Chess, 19. When you have two pawns on a front line neither should be pushed forward until the adversary proposes to exchange. Ibid. Strive to capture or exchange those men which would prevent it [a direct attack].
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., ii. 30. Difficulties that may be exchanged sooner than avoided.
b. With for († with) before the thing taken in exchange. In mod. use also with against (? after Fr. contre). Also absol.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1637), 185 (J.). The King by proclamation was enforced to call in the old money, make a new stampe and to erect Exchanges where the weight of old money was exchanged for new.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. v. 55. To shift his being, Is to exchange one misery with another.
1621. Ainsworth, Annot. Pentat., Gen. xxii. heading, Isaak is exchanged with a ram.
1680. Morden, Geog. Rect., Tartary (1688), 77. The Commodities that the Turks exchange for with the Inhabitants are Slaves, Honey [etc.].
1690. Locke, Govt., II. v. § 46. 266 (J.). Exchange his Sheep for Shells, or Wooll for a sparkling Pebble or a Diamond.
1786. W. Thomson, Watson’s Philip III. (1839), 243. He was impatient to exchange the luxury of a palace for the dangers and hardships of the field.
1833. [see AGAINST 14].
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., iii. (ed. 3), 22. Now where dealings are transacted on a large scale, it is not difficult for commodities to be exchanged against commodities.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iii. 123. The vague expressions of the older charters were now exchanged for precise and elaborate provisions.
† c. To obtain (something) in exchange for.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. i. 84. What, shalt thou exchange for ragges, roabes.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VII. vi. 6. Ne shee the lawes of Nature onely brake, But eke of Justice … And death for life exchanged foolishlie.
2. To give and receive reciprocally; to make an exchange of; to interchange. Const. sing. or pl. obj. with (a person).
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 340. Exchange forgiuenesse with me, Noble Hamlet. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T. IV. iv. 284. She wold not exchange flesh with one that lou’d her.
1698. Ludlow, Mem. (1721), I. 47. The great Shot was exchanged on both sides for the space of an Hour.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 12, ¶ 2. I do not remember that we have exchanged a Word together these five Years.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, I. vii. 191. Would we could exchange natures with him for a moment.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Each & All, vi. 79. They exchanged smiles, and understood one another immediately.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 417. No engagements of allegiance or protection had ever been exchanged.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 5. Blows were exchanged.
3. Mil. and Naval. a. To give up a prisoner to the enemy in return for one taken by them.
1726. Tindal, Rapin’s Hist. Eng. (ed. 2), I. 207/2. Matilda … consented he should be exchanged for the King.
1853. Stocqueler, Mil. Encycl., Prisoners of War are deprived of their liberty until regularly exchanged.
1860. Woolsey, Introd. Internat. Law, § 146. 336. Prisoners are generally exchanged within the same rank man for man.
b. absol. To pass, by exchange with another officer, from or out of one regiment or ship into another. Cf. EXCHANGE sb. 1 e.
1787. Nelson, 10 July, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), I. 243. Lieutenant Hope wished to exchange out of the Pegasus into the Boreas.
1875. Gathorne Hardy, Sp. Ho. Com., 22 Feb. A poor man may find himself in positions where he could not exchange.
1875. Trevelyan, ibid. The officer above them who refuses to exchange out of the battalion.
4. intr. Chiefly of coin: To be received as an equivalent for.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. xi. (1855), 89. In 1695 … the value of the silver coin was not kept up by the gold coin; a guinea then commonly exchanging for thirty shillings of the worn and clipt silver.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. III. iii. § 2. 539. Demand and supply always rush to an equilibrium, but the condition of stable equilibrium is when things exchange for each other according to their cost of production.
1890. Sat. Rev., 3 May, 531/2. An English sovereign exchanged a little while ago for thirteen rupees.
The first quot. may belong to CHANGE v.; schaungen appears among the forms of that word in 14th c.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 479 (Gött.). Fra þan his [Lucifer’s] name schangid was, Now es he cald foule sathanas.
1548. Gest, Pr. Masse, 83. Can it be hys bodye, onles it be exchaunged into it?
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, I. (1625), 144. But … as it much differeth in qualitie from the other, is also alike exchanged by title, that one tearmed by the name of Friendship, and this other … Loue.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., cix. I returne againe, Iust to the time, not with the time exchang’d.
