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Webster 1913 Edition

Commit

Com-mit′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Committed
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Committing
.]
[L.
committere
,
commissum
, to connect, commit;
com-
+
mittere
to send. See
Mission
.]
1.
To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to intrust; to consign; – used with to, unto.
Commit
thy way unto the Lord.
Ps. xxxvii. 5.
Bid him farewell,
commit
him to the grave.
Shakespeare
2.
To put in charge of a jailor; to imprison.
These two were
committed
.
Clarendon.
3.
To do; to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.
Thou shalt not
commit
adultery.
Ex. xx. 14.
4.
To join for a contest; to match; – followed by with.
[R.]
Dr. H. More.
5.
To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step; – often used reflexively;
as, to
commit
one’s self to a certain course
.
You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship, without
commiting
the honor of your sovereign.
Junius.
Any sudden assent to the proposal . . . might possibly be considered as
committing
the faith of the United States.
Marshall.
6.
To confound.
[An obsolete Latinism.]
Committing
short and long [quantities].
Milton.
Syn. –
To Commit
,
Intrust
,
Consign
.
These words have in common the idea of transferring from one's self to the care and custody of another. Commit is the widest term, and may express only the general idea of delivering into the charge of another; as, to commit a lawsuit to the care of an attorney; or it may have the special sense of intrusting with or without limitations, as to a superior power, or to a careful servant, or of consigning, as to writing or paper, to the flames, or to prison. To intrust denotes the act of committing to the exercise of confidence or trust; as, to intrust a friend with the care of a child, or with a secret. To consign is a more formal act, and regards the thing transferred as placed chiefly or wholly out of one's immediate control; as, to consign a pupil to the charge of his instructor; to consign goods to an agent for sale; to consign a work to the press.

Com′mit

,
Verb.
I.
To sin; esp., to be incontinent.
[Obs.]
Commit
not with man's sworn spouse.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition

Commit

COMMIT

,
Verb.
T.
Literally, to send to or upon; to throw, put or lay upon. Hence,
1.
To give in trust; to put into the hands or power of another; to entrust; with to.
Commit thy way to the Lord. Ps. 37.
The things thou hast heard of me, commit to faithful men. 2 Tim. 2.
2.
To put into any place for preservation; to deposit; as, to commit a passage in a book to memory; to commit the body to the grave.
3.
To put or sent to, for confinement; as, to commit an offender to prison. Hence for the sake of brevity, commit is used for imprison. The sheriff has committed the offender.
These two were committed, at least restrained of their liberty.
4.
To do; to effect or perpetrate; as, to commit murder, treason, felony, or trespass.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Ex. 20.
5.
To join or put together, for a contest; to match; followed by with; a latinism.
How does Philopolis commit the opponent with the respondent.
6.
To place in a state of hostility or incongruity. Committing short and long words. But this seems to be the same signification as the foregoing.
7.
To expose or endanger by a preliminary step or decision which cannot be recalled; as, to commit the peace of a country by espousing the cause of a belligerent.
You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship without committing the honor of your sovereign.
8.
To engage; to pledge; or to pledge by implication.
The general--addressed letters to Gen. Gates and to Gen. Heath, cautioning them against any sudden assent to the proposal, which might possibly be considered as committing the faith of the United States.
And with the reciprocal pronoun, to commit ones self, is to do some act, or make some declaration, which may bind the person in honor, good faith, or consistency, to pursue a certain course of conduct, or to adhere to the tenor of that declaration.
9.
To refer or entrust to a committee, or select number of persons, for their consideration and report; a term of legislation; as, the petition or the bill is committed. Is it the pleasure of the house to commit the bill?

Definition 2024

commit

commit

See also: commît

English

Verb

commit ‎(third-person singular simple present commits, present participle committing, simple past and past participle committed)

  1. To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; -- used with to, unto.
    • Bible, Psalms xxxvii. 5
      Commit thy way unto the Lord.
    • Shakespeare
      Bid him farewell, commit him to the grave.
  2. To put in charge of a jailor; to imprison.
    • Clarendon
      These two were committed.
  3. To do; to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.
    • Bible, Exodus xx. 4
      Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  4. To join a contest; to match; followed by with.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dr. H. More to this entry?)
  5. To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step; for example to commit oneself to a certain action, to commit oneself to doing something. (Traditionally used only reflexively but now also without oneself etc.)[1]
    • Junius
      You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship, without committing the honour of your sovereign.
    • Marshall
      Any sudden assent to the proposal […] might possibly be considered as committing the faith of the United States.
  6. (obsolete, Latinism) To confound.
    • Milton
      committing short and long [quantities]
  7. (obsolete, intransitive) To commit an offence; especially, to fornicate.
  8. (obsolete, intransitive) To be committed or perpetrated; to take place; to occur.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
      As a vast herd of cows in a rich farmer's yard, if, while they are milked, they hear their calves at a distance, lamenting the robbery which is then committing, roar and bellow; so roared forth the Somersetshire mob an hallaloo, made up of almost as many squalls, screams, and other different sounds as there were persons, or indeed passions among them […]

Translations

Usage notes

To commit, entrust, consign. These words have in common the idea of transferring from one's self to the care and custody of another. Commit is the widest term, and may express only the general idea of delivering into the charge of another; as, to commit a lawsuit to the care of an attorney; or it may have the special sense of entrusting with or without limitations, as to a superior power, or to a careful servant, or of consigning, as to writing or paper, to the flames, or to prison. To entrust denotes the act of committing to the exercise of confidence or trust; as, to entrust a friend with the care of a child, or with a secret. To consign is a more formal act, and regards the thing transferred as placed chiefly or wholly out of one's immediate control; as, to consign a pupil to the charge of his instructor; to consign goods to an agent for sale; to consign a work to the press.

Derived terms

Related terms

External links

  • commit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • commit in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

References

  1. ↑ http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_speech/v074/74.3shapiro.html

Noun

commit ‎(plural commits)

  1. (computing) The act of committing (e.g. a database transaction or source code into a source control repository), making it a permanent change.
    • 1988, Klaus R Dittrich, Advances in Object-Oriented Database Systems: 2nd International Workshop
      To support locking and process synchronization independently of transaction commits, the server provides semaphore objects...
    • 2009, Jon Loeliger, Version Control with Git
      Every Git commit represents a single, atomic changeset with respect to the previous state.

Translations

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kɔ.mi/

Verb

commit

  1. third-person singular past historic of commettre

Etymology

From Latin committere ‎(“to bring together, join, compare, commit (a wrong), incur, give in charge, etc.”), from com ‎(“together”) + mittere ‎(“to send”). See mission.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kəˈmɪt/
  • Rhymes: -ɪt
  • Hyphenation: com‧mit

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