COMMIT

give, dedicate, consecrate, commit, devote

(verb) give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause; “She committed herself to the work of God”; “give one’s talents to a good cause”; “consecrate your life to the church”

invest, put, commit, place

(verb) make an investment; “Put money into bonds”

commit, institutionalize, institutionalise, send, charge

(verb) cause to be admitted; of persons to an institution; “After the second episode, she had to be committed”; “he was committed to prison”

entrust, intrust, trust, confide, commit

(verb) confer a trust upon; “The messenger was entrusted with the general’s secret”; “I commit my soul to God”

commit, practice

(verb) engage in or perform; “practice safe sex”; “commit a random act of kindness”

perpetrate, commit, pull

(verb) perform an act, usually with a negative connotation; “perpetrate a crime”; “pull a bank robbery”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Verb

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

(transitive) To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.

(transitive) To put in charge of a jailer; to imprison.

(transitive) To have (a person) enter an establishment, such as a hospital or asylum, as a patient.

(transitive) To do (something bad); to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.

To join a contest; to match; followed by with.

(ambitransitive) To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step. (Traditionally used only reflexively but now also without oneself etc.)

(transitive, computing) To make a set of changes permanent.

(transitive, obsolete, Latinism) To confound.

(obsolete, intransitive) To commit an offence; especially, to fornicate.

(obsolete, intransitive) To be committed or perpetrated; to take place; to occur.

Usage notes

To commit, entrust, consign. These words have in common the idea of transferring from oneself 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.

Noun

commit (plural commits)

(computing) The act of committing (e.g. a database transaction or source code into a source control repository), making it a permanent change.

Source: Wiktionary

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Com*mit", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Commited; p. pr. & vb. n. Commiting.] Etym: [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. Shak.

2. To put in charge of a jailor; to imprison. These two were commited. Clarendon.

3. To do; to perperate, as a crime, sin, or fault. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Ex. xx. 14.

4. To join 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. To commit a bill (Legislation), to refer or intrust it to a committee or others, to be considered and reported.

– To commit to memory, or To commit, to learn by heart; to memorize.

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, v. i.

Definition: To sin; esp., to be incontinent. [Obs.] Commit not with man's sworn spouse. Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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