charger

From Middle English chargere, equivalent to charge +‎ -er.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtʃɑːdʒə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)

charger (plural chargers)

1. A device that charges or recharges.

   Put the batteries in the charger overnight so we can use them tomorrow.

   • 2024 March 6, “Network News: GWR '230' sets UK battery record”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 13:

     GWR plans to use it on the Greenford branch in west London, making use of a fast charger at West Ealing that will charge the batteries in just three and a half minutes. This fast charger is essentially a battery installed at the lineside which is trickle-charged from the electricity grid. It can then discharge quickly into the train's batteries through charging rails and then start recharging itself while the train is running in service.

2. One who charges.
   • 2018, Robert J. Stoller, Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred:

     That attack may damage the homosexual, but even as he is hurt, he also feels superior, because he is not a bull—a blind, stupid animal. Rather, he is an aesthete—a tweaker, not a charger.

3. (historical, military) A large horse trained for battle and used by the cavalry (of a lighter build than a destrier).

   The knight rode a white charger.

   • 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

     My centuria slept in one of the stables, under the stone mangers where the names of the cavalry chargers were still inscribed.

4. A large platter.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 14:8:

     And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.

5. A large decorative plate, sometimes used under dinner plates or other savoury-dish vessels in a multi-course meal; also service plate or underplate.

   The fancy restaurant used a white porcelain charger when serving.

6. (firearms) A speed loader that holds several cartridges together in a single unit for easier loading of a firearm's magazine.
7. (prison) A rectal concealment container for prohibited material such as money, drugs and tools.
   • 2004, Brian Helgeland, 01:44:10 from the start, in Man on Fire:

     "See this? This is a charger. It's used by convicts to hide money and drugs. They stick it in their body, they tuck it up their rectum."

8. Synonym of hard charger (“person with a good work ethic”)
   • 1980, Bill Gulley, Mary Ellen Reese, Breaking Cover, page 161:

     Miller had a new executive officer, a real charger, as they're known in the trade, who was looking into all aspects of the operation up there.

Inherited from Old French chargier, from Late Latin carricāre, from Latin carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”). Compare Spanish cargar.

• IPA^(key): /ʃaʁ.ʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: chargé, chargée, chargées, chargés, chargeai, chargez

charger

1. to load (up) (vehicle, animal etc.)
2. to load (firearm)
3. to charge (battery)
4. to put in charge; to charge (somebody with doing something)
5. to charge (somebody of a crime)
6. (military, sports) to charge
7. (theater) to overact, ham it up
8. (reflexive, se charger de) to take care of, see to

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written charge- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

• charger la barque

• Esperanto: ŝarĝi
• Persian: شارژ کردن (šârž kardan)

• “charger”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old French chargier.

charger

1. to load (with goods, etc.)

• As parler except an extra e is inserted after the final g before a and o.
• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

• encharger

• French: charger