Company

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈkÊŒmpÉ™ni/

Origin

From Old French compaignie ("companionship") (Modern French: compagnie), possibly from Late Latin *compania, but this word is not attested. Old French compaignie is equivalent to Old French compaignon (Modern French: compagnon) + -ie. More at companion.

Full definition of company

Noun

1. A team; a group of people who work together professionally.
1. A group of individuals with a common purpose.
   A company of actors.
2. (military) A 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
• 1907, w, The Dust of Conflict Chapter 30, 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.
3. A unit of firefighters and their equipment.
   It took six companies to put out the fire.
4. (nautical) The entire crew of a ship.
5. (espionage) Nickname for an intelligence service.
   As he had worked for the CIA for over 30 years, he would soon take retirement from the company.
6. (legal, business) An entity that manufactures or sells products (also known as goods), or provides services as a commercial venture. A corporation.
• 1913, w, Lord Stranleigh Abroad Chapter 4, “… 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.”
7. (business) Any business, without respect to incorporation.
• 2013-05-17, George Monbiot, Money just makes the rich suffer, 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.
• 2013-06-08, Obama goes troll-hunting, According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures 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.
8. (uncountable) Social visitors or companions.
   Keep the house clean; I have company coming.
• 1922, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest Chapter 5, 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.”
9. (uncountable) Companionship.
   I treasure your company.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 1, 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.

Synonyms

• corporation

Derived terms

Related terms

• accompany
• companion
• discompany

Verb

1. (archaic, transitive) To accompany, keep company with.
• 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts X:Ye dooe knowe howe thatt hytt ys an unlawefull thynge for a man beynge a iewe to company or come unto an alient ....
• 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 2: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.”
2. (archaic, intransitive) To associate.
• Bible, Acts i. 21Men which have companied with us all the time.
3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be a lively, cheerful companion.
4. (obsolete, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse.