barter
    n 1: an equal exchange; "we had no money so we had to live by
         barter" [syn: barter, swap, swop, trade]
    v 1: exchange goods without involving money

Barter \Bar"ter\ (b[aum]r"t[~e]r), v. i. [imp. & p. p.
   Bartered (b[aum]r"t[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Bartering.]
   [OE. bartren, OF. barater, bareter, to cheat, exchange, perh.
   fr. Gr. pra`ttein to do, deal (well or ill), use practices or
   tricks, or perh. fr. Celtic; cf. Ir. brath treachery, W.
   brad. Cf. Barrator.]
   To traffic or trade, by exchanging one commodity for another,
   in distinction from a sale and purchase, in which money is
   paid for the commodities transferred; to truck.
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Barter \Bar"ter\, v. t.
   To trade or exchange in the way of barter; to exchange
   (frequently for an unworthy consideration); to traffic; to
   truck; -- sometimes followed by away; as, to barter away
   goods or honor.
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Barter \Bar"ter\, n.
   1. The act or practice of trafficking by exchange of
      commodities; an exchange of goods.
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            The spirit of huckstering and barter. --Burke.
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   2. The thing given in exchange.
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   Syn: Exchange; dealing; traffic; trade; truck.
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BARTER. A contract by which the parties exchange goods for goods. To 
complete the contract the goods must be delivered, for without a delivery, 
the right of property is not changed. 
     2. This contract differs from a sale in this, that barter is always of 
goods for goods, whereas a sale is an exchange of goods for money. In the 
former there never is a price fixed, in the latter a price is indispensable. 
All the differences which may be pointed out between these two contracts, are 
comprised in this; it is its necessary consequence. When the contract is an 
exchange of goods on one side, and on the other side the consideration is 
partly goods and partly money, the contract is not a barter, but a sale. See 
Price; Sale. 
     3. If an insurance be made upon returns from a country where trade is 
carried on by barter, the valuation of the goods in return shall be made on 
the cost of those given in barter, adding all charges. Wesk. on Ins. 42. See 
3 Camp. 351 Cowp. 818; 1 Dougl. 24, n.; 1 N. R. 151 Tropl. de l'Echange.