mercer
noun
a dealer in textile fabrics; dry-goods merchant.
mercer
American
[mur-ser]
/ ˈmɜr sər /
noun
Chiefly British.
-
mercers
plural
Mercer
1
British
/ ˈmɜːsə /
noun
mercer
2
British
/ ˈmɜːsə /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mercer
1150–1200; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French mercier merchant, equivalent to merz merchandise (< Latin merx, accusative mercem ) + -ier -ier 2; see -er 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
UConn: UConn, which beat mercer 83-38 in the first round, improves to 18-3 as a No. 2 seed and 29-2 all-time in the second round, where they last lost in 1992.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 21, 2022
One of them, the mercer William Caxton, saw the potential of this type of literature if circulated in print.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 22, 2011
A prosperous Bordeaux mercer has the misfortune to upset his gig in a ditch.
From Time Magazine Archive
There is a receipted account from a London tailor for two hundred pounds worth of clothes supplied, and one from a Lyons mercer for an hundred francs worth of silk cravats.
From Lord Tony's Wife An Adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy
Know'st thou not, simple mercer as thou art, that to imagine the Queen's death is treasonable as to attempt her life.
From William Shakespeare as he lived. An Historical Tale by Henry Curling
But there is “no evidence connecting the two death investigations at this time,” said Kari Mercer, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
Mercer is one of millions of Americans going without health insurance after the ending of federal subsidies that kept their ACA premium bills down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
“They’re different in many ways,” said Calvin Mercer, an East Carolina University religious studies professor who writes about human enhancement technologies.
From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2026
“The Trump account is really a prefunding of a retirement account,” Bryan Strike, senior director of financial planning at Mercer Advisors, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
I know it; Mercer knew it; I think you know it, too.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Garthwaite's designs were bought by the major mercers, woven by master weavers and worn by men and women of the highest rank.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 20, 2010
Under pressure from cotton mercers who protested that the Government's cotton holdings acted as a "cloud" over the market, the Federal Farm Board last week announced the coming of a cloudburst.
From Time Magazine Archive
A gild merchant was granted by Edward I., Edward II. and Edward III., and in 1614 was divided into the three companies of drapers, mercers and leathersellers.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 "Destructors" to "Diameter" by Various
Public entertainments, frippery, and splendour made frightful inroads; and when the domestic table was spread, the invisible shapes of tailors, bootmakers, milliners, mercers, and hairdressers sat down and helped to consume poor pater-familias' dinner.
From A Hungarian Nabob by R. Nisbet (Robert Nisbet) Bain
Originally it was chiefly patronised by mercers, silkmen, and lacemen.
From Here and There in London by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
