merchandise

Noun

merchandise (usually uncountable, plural merchandises)

1. (usually) Goods which are or were offered or intended for sale.
   • Good business depends on having good merchandise.
   • So, if a Sonne that is by his Father ſent about Merchandize, doe ſinfully miſcarry vpon the Sea; the imputation of his vvickedneſſe, by your rule, ſhould be impoſed vpon his Father that ſent him: […]1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
2. (usually) Commercial goods connected (branded) with an entity such as a team, band, company, charity, work of fiction, festival, or meme. (Commonly shortened to merch.)
3. (archaic, countable, usually) A commodity offered for sale; an article of commerce; a kind of merchandise.
   • Would we then see in what sence heavenly things may be called a merchandise, and in what sence not; this is easy to him that will understand.1622, John Wing (Minister of the English congregation at Flushing.), The Best Merchandise, Or a Cleare Discovery of the Evident Difference, and Admirable Advantage, Between Our Traffike with God for...
   • What security was there that she might not be a very unfit person, one who had made a merchandise of her charms, the child itself being the offspring of some accidental connexion?1822 June 18, Great Britain. Parliament, “Marriage Act Amendment Bill”, in The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time, published 1823, page 1135
4. (archaic, usually) The act or business of trading; trade; traffic.

Verb

UK/ˈmɜːt͡ʃəndaɪz/US/ˈmɝt͡ʃəndaɪz/

merchandise (third-person singular simple present merchandises, present participle merchandising, simple past and past participle merchandised)

1. (archaic, intransitive) To engage in trade; to carry on commerce.
2. (intransitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of goods, as by display and arrangement of goods.
   • He started his career merchandising in a small clothing store chain.
3. (archaic, transitive) To engage in the trade of.
4. (transitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of.
   • He got hired to merchandise some new sporting goods lines.
5. (transitive) To promote as if for sale.
   • The record companies don't get as good a return on merchandising artists under contract.