I. A place at which trade is conducted.
1. a. A meeting or gathering together of people for the purchase and sale of provisions or livestock, publicly displayed, at a fixed time and place; the occasion or time of this. Also: the people gathered at such a meeting. Freq. with article omitted after to, from, and at. Also fig. or in figurative context.
high market n. Obs. the time when the market is busiest.
b. Proverb. you may know how the market goes by the market folks and variants: only those directly concerned in a matter can give reliable information on it. Obs.
c. to run before one’s horse to market: to anticipate profit or success from a transaction before it has been completed. Obs. rare.
d. to bring one’s eggs (also hogs) to a fair (also bad, etc.) market (chiefly ironic): to be unsuccessful in a venture. See also to bring one’s pigs to a fine market at PIG n.1 Phrases 6. Obs.
e. to bring to market: to offer for sale, put on sale. 
to be at market (U.S.): to be for sale (obs.). to put into (also up to) market: to put up for sale (obs.). to feed to market: to feed up (livestock) for sale. Also fig. Now rare.
The sense is preserved in to bring to market which continues to be used in more specific contexts, freq. in the form to bring to the market (see senses 7f and 9c). Similarly, cf. to be at market and on the market (sense 7a).
f. to go badly to market: to lose money betting on a horse race. Cf. sense 1c. Obs. rare.
g. to stand the market: see STAND v. 62.
h. Austral. and N.Z. to go to market: (a) (of a horse) to buck; (b) (of a person) to behave angrily, become angry.
2. Law. The right granted to the lord of a manor, a municipality, etc., to establish a regular gathering for the purchase and sale of provisions or livestock. Obs.
Quot. 1334-5 is a late copy of a writ declaring a grant of certain rights to Ramsey Abbey, Huntingdonshire, founded on a mid 11th-cent. original. The charter is spurious and cannot be accepted as valid evidence for the use of the word in the 11th cent.
3. a. An open space or covered building in which vendors gather to display provisions (esp. from stalls or booths), livestock, etc., for sale. Now also (U.S.): a supermarket.
b. With prefixed noun indicating the chief commodity sold. For established compounds, as cloth-, corn-, fish-, hay-, meat-, poultry market, see the first element.
II. Trade, business, and other extended uses.
4. a. The action or business of buying and selling; a commercial transaction, a purchase or sale; a (good or bad) bargain. Now hist. and Sc.
b. to make (a) market and variants: to trade, do business, bring off a deal; (also fig.) to have dealings (or occas. sexual intercourse) with a person (obs.). to make a (also one’s) market of: to make a profit from (one’s goods); to victimize or exploit (a person); to profit from (an illicit action). to make (out) one’s market (now Sc.): to buy and sell produce; to do one’s shopping.
c. Chiefly fig.to mar another’s (also one’s) market: to spoil another’s or one’s own trade. Cf. to queer the pitch at QUEER v.2 2b. Obs.
d. to mend one’s market: to improve a bargain; also in extended use. Obs.
e. The sale of a commodity. Obs.
In quot. 1604 fig. with reference to the profit made from a sale.
f. The chance of doing business or making a profit; an opportunity for buying and selling, a deal. Usu. in negative contexts, as to lose (also overstand) one’s market. Also fig. See also sense 4g. Obs.
g. Chiefly Sc. A marriage or marriage agreement; a match; a woman’s chances of finding a husband, esp. one who is wealthy or of high social status. Cf. market-ripe adj. at Compounds 2. Obs.
5. a. The rate of purchase and sale of a commodity. Now usually (chiefly in Stock Market): the market price or the market value.
b. fig. or in figurative context. Obs.
c. Stock Market. to be a strong (also weak, etc.) market: (of a share) to perform in a specified way.
6. A geographical area of commercial activity; the potential demand for a commodity or service provided by such an area. Now also: the potential demand for a commodity or service within a demographic group; the commercial activity of such a group in total. Freq. with the area or group specified. See also HOME MARKET n.
7. a. The arena in which commercial dealings in a particular commodity or product are conducted; the trade in a particular commodity or product. on (also in) the market: offered for sale. to put (something) on the market: to offer for sale. Also fig.
Freq. with commodity or product specified (either attrib. or with in); for common collocations, as art, land, money, property market: see the first element. See also STOCK-MARKET n.
b. The state of trade in a commodity or product at a particular time or in a particular context; esp. the condition of trade with respect to demand.
Also with commodity or product specified (see sense 7a).
c. to engross the market: to buy up the entire stock of a commodity in order to sell it at an increased price. Cf. ENGROSS v. 3a.
d. to come into (also on to) the market: to become available for sale. Cf. sense 9c.
e. to be in the market for: to wish to buy (something). Hence: to be looking for (something). Also (occas.) to be in the market.
f. Business. to bring to (the) market: to develop (a product) to the stage where it can be marketed.
8. a. Sale as controlled by demand; esp. the demand for a commodity, product, etc. Now also concr.: those people who form the demand for a particular product, commodity, or service. Also fig.
Overlapping with sense 6 when a geographical area is specified (see quot. 1983).
b. Stock Market. to make a market: (originally) to induce active dealing in a stock or share by both buying and selling at about the same price; (subsequently also) to bring a share issue to public notice by interesting dealers in buying large blocks of shares; (hence, more generally) to deal wholesale in shares.
9. a. Short for STOCK-MARKET n. 1.
b. Freq. with defining word. A particular trading network within the stock market, dealing in a specific type of commodity, etc.; a system or organization for trading in currencies, bonds, etc.
Earliest on the London Stock Exchange with reference to the groups of jobbers trading in each different commodity or stock.
c. to come to (the) market: (of a company or its share) to make a first appearance on a stock market. Cf. sense 7d.
d. Business. to bring to (the) market: to introduce a company’s shares on to a stock market.
10. Horse Racing. The business done in bets on a race, esp. as it affects the odds offered by bookmakers.
to miss the market: to fail to make a bet at the most favourable odds (see quot. 1897).
11. With the. The competitive free market; the operation of supply and demand. Cf. MARKET FORCES n., MARKETPLACE n. 3.
b. With reference to the money-market.
market quotation n. (see QUOTATION n. 7.)
market-rigger n. (see RIGGER n.2).
market-rigging n. (see RIGGING n.3).
C2. 
market beater n. Obs. a person who loiters around a market, a vagrant (prob. with implication of quarrelsomeness); cf. to beat the streets at BEAT v.1 3a.
market behaviour n. Econ. the fluctuations in the forces of supply and demand within a market.
market bell n. a bell rung to announce the opening or closing of trading in a market.
market boat n. a boat used for transporting produce to market.
market capitalism n. Econ. an economic system which supports private enterprise within a free market, the means of production being privately owned.
market capitalization n. Econ. the value of a company trading on the stock market, calculated by multiplying the total number of shares by the present share price.
market clearing n. and adj. Econ. (a) n. the state in any particular market of supply being equal to demand; the practice of ensuring that this state obtains; (b) adj. (in form market-clearing), set at a level compatible with the maintenance of market clearing.
market-clerk n. Obs. = Clerk of the Market n. at CLERK n. Compounds 2.
market coin n. literary (now rare) money (earliest in fig. context).
market custom n. now rare the dues levied on goods brought to market.
market-dame n. derogatory (now rare) a woman who works at a market (in early use with connotations of promiscuity).
market dasher n. Obs. rare = market beater n.
market dealer n. (a) (originally) a person who sells produce on a market; (later also) a person who or business which buys and sells goods; (b) Stock Market = DEALER n. 5.
market-driven adj. motivated by the needs and wishes of consumers.
market economy n. an economy which is subject to and determined by free competition (cf. planned economy n. at Special uses).
market failure n. Econ. failure on the part of the market system to provide the optimum level of production or quality of product or service; an instance of this.
market fair n. (a) = FAIR n.1 a; (b) Sc. = FAIRING n.1 (obs.).
market fish n. U.S. (a) fish, esp. cod, of a marketable size (see quot. 1894); (b) [alteration of margate-fish at MARGATE n. 1 by folk etymology] = margate-fish at MARGATE n. 1.
market-fresh adj. (a) Eng. regional (chiefly north.), tipsy, slightly the worse for drink; cf. market-merry adj.; (b) (of food) absolutely fresh.
market-friendship n. Obs. rare a business friendship.
market-fuddled adj. Eng. regional (Lancs.) = market-fresh adj.
market gate n. Sc. Obs. a street in which a market is held, esp. in a town; a high-road leading to a marketplace.
market-geld n. Obs. rare a market toll.
market-horse n. rare (a) a horse used to bring goods to market; (b) Horse Racing slang rare, a horse retained in the betting lists simply to attract bets (see MARKETEER n. 2) (obs.).
market hunter n. U.S. a person who hunts game commercially.
market hunting n. U.S. the hunting of game commercially.
market indicator n. Econ. any economic statistic thought of as suggesting more generally the current state of a market, esp. a stock market, or likely future trends within it.
market lash n. Obs. rare a public flogging.
market-lead n. Metall. rare the purest fraction of lead produced by the Pattinson process.
market letter n. a publication giving information on the state of a financial market, advice on investments, etc.
market liberalism n. Polit. Econ. an ideology which views the development and promotion of a market economy with minimal state intervention as an essential aspect of the protection and promotion of individual liberty (cf. LAISSEZ-FAIRE n.).
market-looker n. now hist. an official who inspects the quality of goods at a market.
market mammy n. colloq. (chiefly W. Afr. freq. derogatory), a woman stallholder.
market master n. S. Afr. and U.S. an official, esp. a municipal officer, who administers a town’s market.
market-match n. Obs. rare a marriage made for financial reasons.
market mechanism n. Econ. the workings or processes of the free market, e.g. the setting of prices by the forces of supply and demand, esp. when viewed as sufficient in themselves to regulate the economy without the need for state intervention; (as a count noun) any such process.
market-merriness n. rare tipsiness.
market-merry adj. Eng. regional (chiefly midl.) tipsy, having had a few drinks; = market-fresh adj.
market met adj. (and n.) [< MARKET n. + MET adj.1] Sc. Obs. (something) measured according to the standard measures used at a market.
market-money n. now rare money for buying things in a market; (also) money exchanged on the stock market.
market-monger n. Obs. rare a person who monopolizes or buys up the whole of the market in a commodity.
market mongering n. depreciative rare trading on the stock market which is considered disreputable or dishonest.
market niche n. Business = NICHE n. 4c.
market order n. a direction given to a broker or dealer to buy or (usually) to sell a security, commodity, etc., immediately at the market price.
market-ordinary n. [< MARKET n. + ORDINARY n. 12b or ORDINARY n. 12c] Obs. rare a common meal, or perh. an eating house, provided for market people.
market-oriented adj. Econ. motivated by the demands of the market, market-driven; based on, promoting, or biased towards a market economy; spec. making use of market mechanisms rather than state intervention in the regulation of the economy.
market-peace n. hist. rare the peace or truce which prevailed in a market on market days.
market penny n. Obs. the change from purchases made at market on another’s behalf retained as remuneration.
market-plenty n. Obs. rare plentiful supply or availability.
market pot n. Metall. the last of a series of pots used in the Pattinson process, containing the purest fraction of lead (see also market-lead n.).
market potential n. the estimated potential demand for and sales of a commodity, product, or service.
market power n. Econ. the ability to affect the price or quality of goods or services by dominating the market in either supply or demand.
market pressures n. constraints placed on trade by the level of demand in the market.
market quality n. Obs. rare the status of being a market town.
market rate n. (a) the price currently asked for a commodity or service in a particular market; (b) the current annual percentage rate of interest (whether charged on loans or accruing to investments) as determined by market forces.
market report n. (a) an account of the state of a market at a particular time; spec. a communication from a brokerage house to its investors detailing its recent dealings or the state of the stock market in general; (b) a document containing the results of a market research survey.
market reporter n. U.S. (now rare) a person who records the current prices of goods or stocks on a market.
market-ripe adj. Sc. and Irish English (north.) (of a girl) ready for marriage (cf. sense 4g).
market risk n. Stock Market the risk that an investment will make a loss; an estimation of the extent of this risk.
market runner n. Obs. rare = market beater n.
market set n. Obs. rare (a) = MARKETPLACE n. 1; (b) Sc. a rented site at a market.
market-sharing n. Econ. the apportioning of the available demand for a commodity or product between suppliers; (usu. attrib.) designating an agreement between suppliers to do this.
market-shooter n. U.S. a person who shoots game commercially; cf. market hunter n.
market-sieve n. U.S. Obs. rare (prob.) a sieve for sifting rice for the market.
market-sloop n. U.S. (now rare) a market boat that is a sloop.
market socialism n. an economic system in which the state retains control of the economy as a whole and the ownership of some major industries, while allowing considerable scope for private enterprise and the operation of market mechanisms (cf. mixed economy n. at MIXED adj.2 Special uses 2).
market-socialist n. and adj. Polit. Econ. (a) n. an advocate of market socialism; (b) adj. designating the system of market socialism or a policy characteristic of it.
market society n. a society based around a market economy, esp. one in which political and economic life are dominated by ideas of individual freedom and self-interest.
market square n. an open square in which a town market is held.
market stall n. a trader’s stand or booth in a market.
market stallage n. U.S. Obs. rare the right of erecting or the rent paid for a market stall.
market stance n. Sc. = MARKETPLACE n. 1.
market stuff n. orig. Sc. (now rare) produce for market, marketable goods.
market table n. now rare the table in a public house in a market town around which farmers, market traders, etc., sit on a market day.
market timer n. Stock Market a person who attempts to optimize financial gain by predicting fluctuations in share prices, usually by statistical analysis.
market trader n. (a) a trader on the stock market; (b) a stallholder at a market.
market trot n. now rare a slow trot just above walking pace.
market truck n. U.S. (now rare) = TRUCK n.1 4c.
market valuation n. Econ. valuation of an asset based on the sum which could be obtained were the asset to be sold in the market at a certain time; spec. = market capitalization n.
market wagon n. U.S. a wagon used for carrying produce to market and freq. as a stall from which the produce can be sold.
