Meanings
- colloquialobsoleteuncountableThe stock exchange.
[M]y father[…]was well enough contented to see that she did not behave ill to his children, that she brought him no more, and that she always had a plain dinner ready for him when he came from 'Change[…].
1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 2572 more examples
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, tlie clerk, the undertaker, and tlie chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.
1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 1They sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith, the adventurers and the settlers; kings’ ships and the ships of men on ’Change; captains, admirals, the dark “interlopers” of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned “generals” of East India fleets.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194
Origin
Apheretic form of exchange.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
'Change. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/'Change
“'Change.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/'Change. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “'Change,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/'Change.
Source: 'Change on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.