Definition of "comprise"

comprise

/kəmˈpɹaɪz/

verb
third-person singular simple present comprises, present participle comprising, simple past and past participle comprised
1. (transitive) To be made up of; to consist of (especially a comprehensive list of parts).
  Quotations
  Arsenal were playing without a recognised full-back - their defence comprising four centre-halves - and the lack of width was hindering their progress.
  2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1-0 Everton”, in BBC Sport
2. (sometimes proscribed, usually in the passive) To compose; to constitute.
  Quotations
  "Seeing then the angles comprised of equal right lines are equal, we have found the angle FDE equal to the angle ABC."
  1657, Isaac Barrow, Data (Euclid) (translation), Prop. XXX
  Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.
  1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter I, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915
3. To contain or embrace.
4. (patent law) To include, contain, or be made up of, defining the minimum elements, whether essential or inessential to define an invention.[usage 4]