company

plural companies · alternative obsolete companie

1. countableuncountableA team; a group of people who work together for a common purpose.

   a company of knights

   1. countableuncountableA group of performing artists who put on shows together.

      a company of actors

   2. countableuncountablegovernmentThe crew of a ship.

      a ship's company

   3. countableuncountablegovernmentA unit of approximately sixty to one hundred and twenty soldiers, typically consisting of two or three platoons and forming part of a battalion.

      the boys in Company C

      1 more example

      It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.

      1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 30, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

   4. countableuncountableA unit of firefighters and their equipment.

      It took six companies to put out the fire.

   5. countableinformaluncountableespionageAn intelligence service.

      As he had worked for the CIA for over 30 years, he would soon take retirement from the company.

   6. countableinformaluncountableaeronauticsA specific aircraft or its airline, usually used in air traffic communications to refer conveniently to another aircraft operated by the same airline.
2. countableuncountableA small group of birds or animals.
3. countableuncountablelawAn entity having legal personality, and thus able to own property and to sue and be sued in its own name; a corporation.

   a financial services company

   1 more example

   “[…] That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh.[…]If she had her way, she’d ruin the company inside a year with her hare-brained schemes; love of the people, and that sort of guff.”

   1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad

   Synonyms: business, enterprise, firm

   1. countableuncountablebusinessAny business, whether incorporated or not, that manufactures or sells products (also known as goods), or provides services as a commercial venture.

      Marconi set up the company who made the first radios.

      3 more examples

      In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.

      2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19

      According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

      2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 95

      The company added it has not “received any reports of adverse events,” but it’s moving forward with the recall out of “an abundance of caution.”

      2021 November 26, Jackie Wattles, “Some Old Spice and Secret deodorants recalled after cancer-causing chemical is detected”, in CNN Business

      Synonyms: business, enterprise, firm

   2. countableuncountablelawThe members of a partnership business who are not listed in the company's name; unnamed individuals in an entourage or other group.

      Smith, Capitano and Company

      1 more example

      Here come Will, Martin and company.

      Synonyms: business, enterprise, firm

4. uncountableCompanionship.

   I treasure your company.

   2 more examples

   He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 2

   So I go into the darkness of the night / All alone I walk the streets until I find / Someone who is just like me / Looking for some company

   1972, The Stylistics, “Children of The Night”, in Round 2

   1. uncountableOne or more social visitor(s) or companion(s).

      Keep the house clean; I have company coming.

      3 more examples

      Come, O thou Traveller unknown, / Whom still I hold, but cannot see! / My company before is gone, / And I am left alone with Thee; / With Thee all night I mean to stay, / And wrestle till the break of day.

      1742, “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”, Charles Wesley (music)

      At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]

      1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202

      The departure was not unduly prolonged. In the road Mr. Love and the driver favoured the company with a brief chanty running. “Got it?—No, I ain't, 'old on,—Got it? Got it?—No, 'old on sir.”

      1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

   2. countablefigurativelyuncountableOne or more other person(s) who are nearby, are approaching, or are (e.g. covertly) watching, especially if they may have hostile intentions (like adversaries or rivals).

      Get your guns ready: intel said there'd be no hostiles in the area, but it looks like we've got company.

      1 more example

      I thought we'd be the only ones exploring this abandoned tunnel system today, but judging by that light up ahead, it looks like we've got company. I wonder if it's anyone we know.

present singular third person companies · participle present companying · participle past companied · past companied · alternative obsolete companie

1. archaictransitiveTo accompany, keep company with.

   Ye dooe knowe howe thatt hytt ys an vnlawefull thynge for a man beynge a iewe to company or come vnto an alient […].

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts x:[28], folio clxix, recto

   1 more example

   it was with a distinctly fallen countenance that his father hearkened to his mother's parenthetical request to “’bide hyar an’ company leetle Moses whilst I be a-milkin’ the cow.”

   1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 2

   Synonyms: attend, escort, go with

2. archaicintransitiveTo associate.

   Men which have companied with us all the time.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 1:21

3. intransitiveobsoleteTo be a lively, cheerful companion.

   If thee list unto the Court to throng […]there thou needs must learne, to laugh, to lie, To face, to forge, to scoffe, to companie.

   1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC

4. intransitiveobsoleteTo have sexual intercourse.

   companying with Infidels may not be simply condemned

   a. 1656, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. I. F.

   Synonyms: fornicate