company

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.

noun

1. A team; a group of people who work together professionally.
   1. A group of individuals who work together for a common purpose.
      A company of actors.
   2. (military) A unit of approximately sixty to one hundred and twenty soldiers, typically consisting of two or three platoons and forming part of a battalion.
      the boys in Company C
      It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle. 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 30, in The Dust of Conflict
   3. A unit of firefighters and their equipment.
      It took six companies to put out the fire.
   4. (nautical) The entire crew of a ship.
   5. (espionage, informal) An intelligence service.
      As he had worked for the CIA for over 30 years, he would soon take retirement from the company.
2. A small group of birds or animals.
3. (law) An entity having legal personality, and thus able to own property and to sue and be sued in its own name; a corporation.
   […] That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh.[…]If she had her way, she’d ruin the company inside a year with her hare-brained schemes; love of the people, and that sort of guff. 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
4. (business) 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. 17 May 2013, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19
   According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle. 8 June 2013, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 95
5. (uncountable) Social visitors or companions.
   Keep the house clean; I have company coming.
   Come, O thou Traveller unknown, / Whom still I hold, but cannot see! / My company before is gone, / And I am left alone with Thee; / With Thee all night I mean to stay, / And wrestle till the break of day. 1742, “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”, Charles Wesley (music)
   At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […] 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202
   The departure was not unduly prolonged. In the road Mr. Love and the driver favoured the company with a brief chanty running. “Got it?—No, I ain't, 'old on,—Got it? Got it?—No, 'old on sir.” 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
6. (uncountable) Companionship.
   I treasure your company.

verb

1. (archaic, transitive) To accompany, keep company with.
   Ye dooe knowe howe thatt hytt ys an unlawefull thynge for a man beynge a iewe to company or come unto an alient […]. 1526, William, trans. Tyndale, Bible, acts X
   it was with a distinctly fallen countenance that his father hearkened to his mother's parenthetical request to “’bide hyar an’ company leetle Moses whilst I be a-milkin’ the cow.” 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 2
2. (archaic, intransitive) To associate.
3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be a lively, cheerful companion.
4. (obsolete, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse.
   companying with Infidels may not be simply condemned a. 1656, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. I. F.