Convert

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Convert \Con"vert\, n.
     1. A person who is converted from one opinion or practice to
        another; a person who is won over to, or heartily
        embraces, a creed, religious system, or party, in which he
        has not previously believed; especially, one who turns
        from the controlling power of sin to that of holiness, or


        from unbelief to Christianity.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The Jesuits did not persuade the converts to lay
              aside the use of images.              --Bp.
                                                    Stillingfleet.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A lay friar or brother, permitted to enter a monastery for
        the service of the house, but without orders, and not
        allowed to sing in the choir.
  
     Syn: Proselyte; neophyte.
  
     Usage: {Convert}, {Proselyte}, {Pervert}. A convert is one
            who turns from what he believes to have been a decided
            error of faith or practice. Such a change may relate
            to religion, politics, or other subjects. properly
            considered, it is not confined to speculation alone,
            but affects the whole current of one's feelings and
            the tenor of his actions. As such a change carries
            with it the appearance of sincerity, the term convert
            is usually taken in a good sense. Proselyte is a term
            of more ambiguous use and application. It was first
            applied to an adherent of one religious system who had
            transferred himself externally to some other religious
            system; and is also applied to one who makes a similar
            transfer in respect to systems of philosophy or
            speculation. The term has little or no reference to
            the state of the heart. Pervert is a term of recent
            origin, designed to express the contrary of convert,
            and to stigmatize a person as drawn off perverted from
            the true faith. It has been more particulary applied
            by members of the Church of England to those who have
            joined the Roman Catholic Church.
            [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Convert \Con*vert"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Converted}; p. pr. &
     vb. n. {Converting}.] [L. convertere, -versum; con- + vertere
     to turn: cf. F. convertir. See {Verse}.]
     1. To cause to turn; to turn. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              O, which way shall I first convert myself? --B.
                                                    Jonson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To change or turn from one state or condition to another;
        to alter in form, substance, or quality; to transform; to
        transmute; as, to convert water into ice.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              If the whole atmosphere were converted into water.
                                                    --T. Burnet.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              That still lessens
              The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To change or turn from one belief or course to another, as
        from one religion to another or from one party or sect to
        another.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              No attempt was made to convert the Moslems.
                                                    --Prescott.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. To produce the spiritual change called conversion in (any
        one); to turn from a bad life to a good one; to change the
        heart and moral character of (any one) from the
        controlling power of sin to that of holiness.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He which converteth the sinner from the error of his
              way shall save a soul from death.     --Lames v. 20.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. To apply to any use by a diversion from the proper or
        intended use; to appropriate dishonestly or illegally.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              When a bystander took a coin to get it changed, and
              converted it, [it was] held no larceny. --Cooley.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. To exchange for some specified equivalent; as, to convert
        goods into money.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     7. (Logic) To change (one proposition) into another, so that
        what was the subject of the first becomes the predicate of
        the second.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     8. To turn into another language; to translate. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Which story . . . Catullus more elegantly converted.
                                                    --B. Jonson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Converted guns}, cast-iron guns lined with wrought-iron or
        steel tubes. --Farrow.
  
     {Converting furnace} (Steel Manuf.), a furnace in which
        wrought iron is converted into steel by cementation.
  
     Syn: To change; turn; transmute; appropriate.
          [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Convert \Con*vert"\, v. i.
     To be turned or changed in character or direction; to undergo
     a change, physically or morally.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           If Nebo had had the preaching that thou hast, they [the
           Neboites] would have converted.          --Latimer.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           A red dust which converth into worms.    --Sandys.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The public hope
           And eye to thee converting.              --Thomson.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  convert
       n : a person who has been converted to another religious or
           political belief
       v 1: change the nature, purpose, or function of something;
            "convert lead into gold"; "convert hotels into jails";
            "convert slaves to laborers"
       2: change from one system to another or to a new plan or
          policy; "We converted from 220 to 110 Volt" [syn: {change
          over}]
       3: change religious beliefs, or adopt a religious belief; "She
          converted to Buddhism"
       4: exchange or replace with another, usually of the same kind
          or category; "Could you convert my dollars into pounds?";
          "He changed his name"; "convert centimeters into inches";
          "convert holdings into shares" [syn: {change}, {exchange},
           {commute}]
       5: cause to adopt a new or different faith; "The missionaries
          converted the Indian population"
       6: score an extra point or points after touchdown by kicking
          the ball through the uprights or advancing the ball into
          the endzone; "Smith converted and his team won"
       7: complete successfully; "score a penalty shot or free throw"
       8: score (a spare)
       9: make (someone) agree, understand, or realize the truth or
          validity of something; "He had finally convinced several
          customers of the advantages of his product" [syn: {win
          over}, {convince}]
       10: exchange a penalty for a less severe one [syn: {commute}, {exchange}]
       11: change in nature, purpose, or function; especially undergo a
           chemical change; "The substance converts to an acid"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  232 Moby Thesaurus words for "convert":
     Christian, God-fearing man, abuse, accepter, accommodate, actuate,
     adapt, adjust, alter, ameliorate, apostate, apostle, apply,
     assimilate to, assure, backslider, be convincing, become, befoul,
     believer, bend, better, bias, bolter, break up, bring,
     bring home to, bring over, bring round, bring to, bring to reason,
     budge, carry conviction, carve, catechumen, change, change into,
     change over, chisel, churchgoer, churchite, churchman,
     clear the trade, close out, collaborationist, collaborator,
     communicant, commute, convict, convince, cultivate,
     daily communicant, debase, defalcate, defector, defile, deform,
     denature, desecrate, deserter, devotee, devotionalist, disciple,
     diversify, divert, do over, drive home to, dump, embezzle, employ,
     evert, extract, fabricate, fanatic, fifth columnist, fit, follower,
     forge, foul, give salvation, good Christian, grow, harvest, impel,
     improve, incline, inspire belief, introvert, intussuscept,
     invaginate, inverse, invert, lead, lead to believe, liquidate,
     machine, make, make over, maladminister, manufacture, meliorate,
     metamorphose, mill, mine, misapply, misappropriate, misemploy,
     mishandle, mismanage, misuse, mitigate, modify, modulate, move,
     mugwump, mutate, naturalize, neophyte, overthrow, peculate,
     persuade, pervert, pietist, pilfer, pollute, process, profane,
     pronate, proselyte, proselytize, prostitute, pump, qualify,
     quisling, raise, re-create, realign, rear, rebuild, receiver,
     recidivist, reconstruct, reconvert, recreant, redeem, redesign,
     reduce to, refine, refit, reform, regenerate, religionist, remake,
     remodel, render, renegade, renegado, renegate, renew, reshape,
     resolve into, restructure, resupinate, revamp, reverse,
     reversionist, revive, revolve, ring the changes, rotate, runagate,
     saint, satisfy, save, schismatic, seceder, secessionist, sell,
     sell one on, sell out, sell short, separatist, shift,
     shift the scene, shuffle the cards, smelt, strikebreaker, subvert,
     supinate, sway, switch, switch over, talk over, tergiversant,
     tergiversator, terminate the account, theist, traitor, transfigure,
     transform, translate, transmogrify, transmute, transpose,
     transubstantiate, truster, turn about, turn around, turn back,
     turn down, turn in, turn inside out, turn into, turn out,
     turn over, turn the scale, turn the tables, turn the tide,
     turn upside down, turnabout, turncoat, turntail, unload, use,
     utilize, vary, violate, votary, win over, work a change, worsen,
     zealot
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  CONVERT
       
          1. String processing language, combined the pattern matching
          and transformation operations of COMIT with the recursive data
          structures of Lisp.  "Convert", A. Guzman et al, CACM
          9(8):604-615 (Aug 1966).
       
          2. Early language to convert programs and data from one
          language to another.  "CONVERT Manual", OLI Systems Inc (Oct
          1976).