charge account
2
3.4
- noun
- /ˈtʃɑrdʒ əˈkaʊnt/
- Charge accounts at all the stores.
- open a charge account
- set up a charge account
Examples
-
He still gambles and incurs bad debts, uses my charge accounts, eats my food and borrows my cars without asking permission.
-
The nicest thing about The Breakwater was the charge account.
Fiction book (2001) -
I got a lot of charge accounts and a really nice apartment.
-
All major charge accounts and credit cards.
-
I have a charge account.
-
Do you have a charge account with us?
Fiction book (1990) -
We don't have to worry about paying for it... because I opened up a charge account at the Galleria.
-
"I happen to know that you have a charge account at Zabar's," Sophia retorted.
Fiction book (1998) -
It seemed to me, when I was old enough to understand the concept, that he had a limitless charge account with Duffy's.
Fiction book (2001) -
Do you have a charge account with us that allows you to buy items and pay later?
Synonyms
∞
3.1
An amount of money you can borrow now and pay back later
5
4.3
An agreement to get goods or services now and pay later
1
3.2
An arrangement with a shop that lets a customer buy now and pay later
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is compositionally built from 'charge' (a request for payment/cost) and 'account' (a record or arrangement for payments); a learner who knows both can infer an account used for charges and thus buying on credit to be paid later. This noun-noun combination follows regular English compounding patterns and has clear cross-linguistic equivalents, so the sense is immediately derivable.
Etymology
The noun charge account comes from old shops where the shopkeeper wrote each charge in a customer's account book when they took goods. That's why it now means an account that lets you 'buy now, pay later'.