Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - charge

~1 n 1 »PRICE« the amount of money you have to pay for goods or services  (Gas charges will rise in July.) + for  (When you buy a suit, there is no charge for any alterations.) free of charge (=at no cost)  (Your order will be delivered free of charge within a ten-mile limit. | at no extra charge (=without having to pay more money))  (- see cost1) 2 »CONTROL« a) be in charge (of) to be the person who controls or is responsible for a group of people or an activity  (Who's in charge around here? | the officer in charge of the investigation)  (- see control1) b) put sb in charge (of) to give someone complete responsibility over an activity, group of people, organization etc  (I've been put in charge of the team.) c) take charge (of) to take control of a situation, organization, or group of people  (Harry will take charge of the department while I'm away.) 3 »RESPONSIBILITY/CARE FOR« a) be in/under sb's charge if someone or something is in your charge, you are responsible for looking after them  (The child was in my charge when he ran away. | The files were left in your charge.) b) formal someone that you are responsible for looking after  (Sarah bought some chocolate for her three young charges.) 4 »THAT SB IS GUILTY« an official statement made by the police saying that someone is guilty of a crime + agains  (The charge against her was arson.) on a charge  (Young appeared in court on a murder charge. | charge of burglary/theft/fraud etc)  (Owen is facing a charge of armed robbery. | bring/press/prefer charges (=state officially that someone is guilty of a crime))  (As it was his first offence, the store agreed not to press charges. | drop the charges (=decide to stop making charges)) 5 »BLAME« a written or spoken statement blaming someone for doing something bad or illegal; allegation  (the charge of being an uncaring mother | a group which earlier rejected the charge that it had put undue pressure on the Prime Minister | counter a charge (=say that a charge is untrue) | lay/leave yourself open to a charge of (=be likely to be blamed for something))  (The procedures the doctor followed laid him open to charges of negligence.) 6 »ATTACK« an attack in which soldiers, wild animals etc rush with great force against someone 7 »ELECTRICAL FORCE« an electrical force that is put into a piece of electrical equipment such as a battery (1)  (on charge (=taking in a charge of electricity))  (Leave the battery on charge all night.) 8 »EXPLOSIVE« an amount of explosive, especially the amount needed to work successfully 9 »STRENGTH OF FEELINGS« the power of strong feelings  (a novel with a strong emotional charge) 10 get a charge out of sth AmE to be excited by something and enjoy it very much  (I got a real charge out of seeing my niece take her first steps.) 11 »AN ORDER TO DO STH« formal an order to do something  (a charge to do sth)  (The old servant fulfilled his master's charge to care for the children.)  (- see also reverse the charges reverse1 (5)) ~2 v 1 »MONEY« a) to ask someone a certain amount of money for something you are selling  (charge sb $10/$50 etc (for sth))  (The restaurant charged us $40 for the wine.) + for  (We won't charge for delivery if you pay now.) b) charge sth to sb's account to record the cost of something on someone's account, so that they can pay for it later  (Charge the room to the company's account.) c) AmE to pay for something with a credit card  (I charged the shoes on Visa. | charge it)  ("Do you have enough cash for that?" "No, but I can charge it.") 2 »RUSH/ATTACK« a) to deliberately rush quickly towards someone or something in order to attack them + at/towards/into  (a three-ton rhino charging towards us | charge sb)  (We drew our swords and charged the enemy.) b) I always+ adv/prep) to deliberately run or walk somewhere quickly + around/through/out etc  (At playtime, the children charged wildly out of the building.) 3 »WITH A CRIME« to state officially that someone is guilty of a crime  (be charged with)  (The man they arrested last night has been charged with murder.) 4 »BLAME SB« formal to say publicly that you think someone has done something wrong  (charge that)  (Labour's Bryan Gould charged that Mr. Mellor acted `improperly'.) 5 »ELECTRICITY« if a battery charges or if you charge it, it takes in and stores electricity  (If the light comes on, the battery isn't charging.) 6 »ORDER SB« formal to order someone to do something or make them responsible for it  (be charged with doing sth)  (The commission is charged with investigating all the alleged breaches of the rules.) 7 »GUN« old use to load a gun 8 »GLASS« formal to fill a glass  (Charge your glasses and drink a toast to the happy couple.)