interchange

Other forms: interchanged; interchanging; interchanges

To interchange two things is to trade or switch them. If the painting hanging on your wall just doesn't fit the room, you can interchange it with the photograph on the opposite wall.

When you're baking a pie, you can usually interchange one kind of fruit for another, or interchange tapioca for cornstarch to thicken the filling. When interchange is a noun, it has various meanings including "highway intersection," or the place where these busy roads meet each other. This road meaning dates only from the 1940s, while the "change places" meaning is at least 400 years old.

Definitions of interchange

1. verb

   cause to change places
   “interchange this screw for one of a smaller size”

   synonyms: counterchange, transpose

   type of:

   alter, change, modify

   cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
2. verb

   put in the place of another; switch seemingly equivalent items
   synonyms: exchange, replace, substitute

   types:

   shift

   move and exchange for another

   reduce, simplify

   simplify the form of a mathematical equation of expression by substituting one term for another

   truncate

   replace a corner by a plane

   retool

   provide (a workshop or factory) with new tools

   subrogate

   substitute one creditor for another, as in the case where an insurance company sues the person who caused an accident for the insured

   type of:

   alter, change, modify

   cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
3. verb

   give to, and receive from, one another
   synonyms: change, exchange

   types:

   sell

   exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent

   cash, cash in

   exchange for cash

   ransom, redeem

   exchange or buy back for money; under threat

   redeem

   turn in (vouchers or coupons) and receive something in exchange

   fill in, stand in, sub, substitute

   be a substitute

   swap, switch, swop, trade

   exchange or give (something) in exchange for

   barter

   exchange goods without involving money

   trade, trade in

   turn in as payment or part payment for a purchase

   clear

   sell

   negociate

   sell or discount

   scalp

   sell illegally, as on the black market

   bootleg

   sell illicit products such as drugs or alcohol

   sell short

   sell securities or commodities or foreign currency that is not actually owned by the seller, who hopes to cover (buy back) the sold items at a lower price and thus to earn a profit

   remainder

   sell cheaply as remainders

   resell

   sell (something) again after having bought it

   syndicate

   sell articles, television programs, or photos to several publications or independent broadcasting stations

   deaccession

   sell (art works) from a collection, especially in order to raise money for the purchase of other art works

   sell off

   get rid of by selling, usually at reduced prices

   fob off, foist off, palm off

   sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceive

   realise, realize

   convert into cash; of goods and property

   auction, auction off, auctioneer

   sell at an auction

   retail

   sell on the retail market

   wholesale

   sell in large quantities

   liquidate

   convert into cash

   redeem

   convert into cash; of commercial papers

   barter away

   trade in in a bartering transaction

   sacrifice

   sell at a loss

   dump, underprice

   sell at artificially low prices

   undercut, undersell

   sell cheaper than one's competition

   dispose

   give, sell, or transfer to another

   move

   dispose of by selling

   type of:

   transfer

   cause to change ownership
4. verb

   reverse (a direction, attitude, or course of action)
   synonyms: alternate, flip, flip-flop, switch, tack

   type of:

   change by reversal, reverse, turn

   change to the contrary