Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Charge \Charge\, n. [F. charge, fr. charger to load. See
   {Charge}, v. t., and cf. {Cargo}, {Caricature}.]
   1. A load or burder laid upon a person or thing.

   2. A person or thing commited or intrusted to the care,
      custody, or management of another; a trust.

   Note: The people of a parish or church are called the charge
         of the clergyman who is set over them.

   3. Custody or care of any person, thing, or place; office;
      responsibility; oversight; obigation; duty.

            'Tis a great charge to come under one body's hand.
                                                  --Shak.

   4. Heed; care; anxiety; trouble. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

   5. Harm. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

   6. An order; a mandate or command; an injunction.

            The king gave cherge concerning Absalom. --2. Sam.
                                                  xviii. 5.

   7. An address (esp. an earnest or impressive address)
      containing instruction or exhortation; as, the charge of a
      judge to a jury; the charge of a bishop to his clergy.

   8. An accusation of a wrong of offense; allegation;
      indictment; specification of something alleged.

            The charge of confounding very different classes of
            phenomena.                            --Whewell.

   9. Whatever constitutes a burden on property, as rents,
      taxes, lines, etc.; costs; expense incurred; -- usually in
      the plural.

   10. The price demanded for a thing or service.

   11. An entry or a account of that which is due from one party
       to another; that which is debited in a business
       transaction; as, a charge in an account book.

   12. That quantity, as of ammunition, electricity, ore, fuel,
       etc., which any apparatus, as a gun, battery, furnace,
       machine, etc., is intended to receive and fitted to hold,
       or which is actually in it at one time

   13. The act of rushing upon, or towards, an enemy; a sudden
       onset or attack, as of troops, esp. cavalry; hence, the
       signal for attack; as, to sound the charge.

             Never, in any other war afore, gave the Romans a
             hotter charge upon the enemies.      --Holland.

             The charge of the light brigade.     --Tennyson.

   14. A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack; as, to bring
       a weapon to the charge.

   15. (Far.) A soft of plaster or ointment.

   16. (Her.) A bearing. See {Bearing}, n., 8.

   17. [Cf. {Charre}.] Thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig
       weighing about seventy pounds; -- called also {charre}.

   18. Weight; import; value.

             Many suchlike ``as's'' of great charge. --Shak.

   {Back charge}. See under {Back}, a.

   {Bursting charge}.
       (a  (Mil.) The charge which bursts a shell, etc.
       (b  (Mining) A small quantity of fine powder to secure
           the ignition of a charge of coarse powder in
           blasting.

   {Charge and discharge} (Equity Practice), the old mode or
      form of taking an account before a master in chancery.

   {Charge sheet}, the paper on which are entered at a police
      station all arrests and accusations.

   {To sound the charge}, to give the signal for an attack.

   Syn: Care; custody; trust; management; office; expense; cost;
        price; assault; attack; onset; injunction; command;
        order; mandate; instruction; accusation; indictment.