What is "to sound the charge"

Charge \Charge\, n. [F. charge, fr. charger to load. See Charge, v. t., and cf. Cargo, Caricature.]

1. A load or burder laid upon a person or thing.

2. A person or thing commited or intrusted to the care, custody, or management of another; a trust.

   Note: The people of a parish or church are called the charge of the clergyman who is set over them.

3. Custody or care of any person, thing, or place; office; responsibility; oversight; obigation; duty.

   'Tis a great charge to come under one body's hand.
   --Shak.

4. Heed; care; anxiety; trouble. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

5. Harm. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

6. An order; a mandate or command; an injunction.

   The king gave cherge concerning Absalom.
   --2. Sam. xviii. 5.

7. An address (esp. an earnest or impressive address) containing instruction or exhortation; as, the charge of a judge to a jury; the charge of a bishop to his clergy.

8. An accusation of a wrong of offense; allegation; indictment; specification of something alleged.

   The charge of confounding very different classes of phenomena.
   --Whewell.

9. Whatever constitutes a burden on property, as rents, taxes, lines, etc.; costs; expense incurred; -- usually in the plural.

10. The price demanded for a thing or service.

11. An entry or a account of that which is due from one party to another; that which is debited in a business transaction; as, a charge in an account book.

12. That quantity, as of ammunition, electricity, ore, fuel, etc., which any apparatus, as a gun, battery, furnace, machine, etc., is intended to receive and fitted to hold, or which is actually in it at one time

13. The act of rushing upon, or towards, an enemy; a sudden onset or attack, as of troops, esp. cavalry; hence, the signal for attack; as, to sound the charge.

    Never, in any other war afore, gave the Romans a hotter charge upon the enemies.
    --Holland.

    The charge of the light brigade.
    --Tennyson.

14. A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack; as, to bring a weapon to the charge.

15. (Far.) A sort of plaster or ointment.

16. (Her.) A bearing. See Bearing, n., 8.

17. [Cf. Charre.] Thirty-six pigs of lead, each pig weighing about seventy pounds; -- called also charre.

18. Weight; import; value. Many suchlike ``as's'' of great charge. --Shak. Back charge. See under Back, a. Bursting charge.

    1. (Mil.) The charge which bursts a shell, etc.

    2. (Mining) A small quantity of fine powder to secure the ignition of a charge of coarse powder in blasting.

       Charge and discharge (Equity Practice), the old mode or form of taking an account before a master in chancery.

       Charge sheet, the paper on which are entered at a police station all arrests and accusations.

       To sound the charge, to give the signal for an attack.

       Syn: Care; custody; trust; management; office; expense; cost; price; assault; attack; onset; injunction; command; order; mandate; instruction; accusation; indictment.