company

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a unit of firefighters including their equipment

   a hook-and-ladder company

2. 2
   noun

   a social gathering of guests or companions

   the house was filled with company when I arrived

3. 3
   noun

   organization of performers and associated personnel, especially theatrical

   The traveling company all stayed at the same hotel.

4. 4
   noun

   a social or business visitor

   The room is a mess because we didn't expect company.

5. 5
   noun

   the state of being with someone

   It felt lonely to sit there without any company.

6. 6
   noun

   A team; a group of people who work together professionally.

   a company of actors

7. 7
   noun

   An entity having legal personality, and thus able to own property and to sue and be sued in its own name; a corporation.

   a financial services company

8. 8
   noun

   Any business, whether incorporated or not, that manufactures or sells products (also known as goods), or provides services as a commercial venture.

   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.

Etymology

From Middle English companye (“a team; companionship”), 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. Displaced native Old English werod, gefer, getæl, and hired.