| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| convert |
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| SYLLABICATION: | con·vert |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  k n-vûrt |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: con·vert·ed, con·vert·ing, con·verts
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To change (something) into another form, substance, state, or product; transform: convert water into ice. 2. To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another; adapt to a new or different purpose: convert a forest into farmland. 3. To persuade or induce to adopt a particular religion, faith, or belief: convert pagans to Christianity; was converted to pacifism by the war. 4. To exchange for something of equal value: convert assets into cash. 5. To exchange (a security, for example) by substituting an equivalent of another form. 6. To express (a quantity) in alternative units: converting feet into meters. 7. Logic To transform (a proposition) by conversion. 8. Law a. To appropriate (another's property) without right to one's own use. b. To change (property) from real to personal or from joint to separate or vice versa. 9. Sports a. To complete (a conversion, penalty shot, or free throw) successfully. b. To score (a spare) in bowling. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To undergo a conversion: We converted to Islam several years ago. 2. To be converted: a sofa that converts into a bed; arms factories converting to peacetime production. 3a. Football To make a conversion. b. Sports To shoot and score a goal, especially immediately after receiving a pass or gaining control of a rebound. | | NOUN: | (k nvûrt ) One who has been converted, especially from one religion or belief to another. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English converten, from Old French convertir, from Latin convertere, to turn around : com-, intensive pref.; see com– + vertere, to turn; see wer-2 in Appendix I. | | SYNONYMS: | convert, metamorphose, transfigure, transform, transmogrify, transmute These verbs mean to change into a different form, substance, or state: convert stocks into cash; misery that was metamorphosed into happiness; a gangling adolescent who was transfigured into a handsome adult; transformed the bare stage into an enchanted forest; a boom that transmogrified the sleepy town into a bustling city; impossible to transmute lead into gold.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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