The Collaborative International Dictionary
Merchant \Mer"chant\, a. Of, pertaining to, or employed in, trade or merchandise; as, the merchant service.
Merchant bar, Merchant iron or Merchant steel, certain common sizes of wrought iron and steel bars.
Merchant service or Merchant marine, the mercantile marine
of a country.
--Am. Cyc.
Merchant ship, a ship employed in commerce.
Merchant tailor, a tailor who keeps and sells materials for the garments which he makes.
Wiktionary
n. A marine cargo vessel.
WordNet
n. a cargo ship; "they did much of their overseas trade in foreign bottoms" [syn: bottom, freighter, merchantman]
Usage examples of "merchant ship".
Montreal and loajed on the Stord, a Norwegian -built merchant ship, which promptly ran aground at Pointe des Monts in the Gulf of St Lawrence.
The Bay Steamship Company, a hastily, set-up subsidiary, chartered 286 merchant ships totalling 1.