From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmerchantmer‧chant /ˈmɜːtʃənt $ ˈmɜːr-/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 → wine/coal/timber etc merchant2 BBT old-fashioned someone who buys and sells goods in large quantities the son of a wealthy merchant3 → con merchant/speed merchant etc
Examples from the Corpus
merchant• Merchants say sales have not been affected by the road repairs.• Its name comes from Philip Fenton, a merchant who owned it during its second century.• He appears among merchants as a merchant, among princes as a prince; even among insects as an insect.• an international arms merchant• Downtown merchants are stocking up for the Christmas shopping season.• These steps into new territory were too big and too risky to be undertaken by individual merchants.• Local merchants have had trouble with vandals breaking windows.• She was born in 1432, the daughter of a wealthy London merchant.• Several of them were the sons of merchants, some prosperous, some small, two ruined.• The merchant, the client, had willingly stooped into the dungeon of lust.• Also patron of job-related stress and wine merchants.From Longman Business Dictionarymerchantmer‧chant /ˈmɜːtʃəntˈmɜːr-/ noun [countable]COMMERCE1a person or organization that buys and sells goods or a particular type of goodsUS tobacco merchants are depending more and more on international sales.wine merchants and distributors2used by CREDIT CARD companies to talk about the shops etc that accept their cardsToday, over 18 million merchants accept Visa.Origin merchant (1100-1200) Old French marcheant, from Latin mercatus, past participle of mercari “to buy and sell” 