Definition of "convert"

convert

verb
third-person singular simple present converts, present participle converting, simple past and past participle converted
1. (transitive) To transform or change (something) into another form, substance, state, or product.
  Quotations
  if the whole atmosphere were converted into water
  1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth
  That ſtill leſſens / The ſorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.
  1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 91
  Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.
  2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist
2. (transitive) To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another.
  Quotations
  “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, […].
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
3. (transitive) To induce (someone) to adopt a particular religion, faith, ideology or belief (see also sense 11).
  Quotations
  No attempt was made to convert the Moslems.
  1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company
  How little chance, then, should I have against one whose brain was supernaturally sharpened, and who had two thousand years of experience, besides all manner of knowledge of the secrets of Nature at her command! Feeling that she would be more likely to convert me than I should to convert her, I thought it best to leave the matter alone, and so sat silent.
  1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
  One old chap on a huge slotting machine was intensely religious and made great efforts to convert every young man who came his way.
  1944 September and October, A Former Student, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 285
4. (transitive) To exchange for something of equal value.
5. (transitive) To express (a quantity) in alternative units.
6. (transitive) To express (a unit of measurement) in terms of another; to furnish a mathematical formula by which a quantity, expressed in the former unit, may be given in the latter.
7. (transitive, law) To appropriate wrongfully or unlawfully; to commit the common law tort of conversion.
8. (transitive, intransitive, rugby football) To score extra points after (a try) by completing a conversion.
  Quotations
  Flood converted to leave Wales with a 23-9 deficit going into the final quarter.
  2011 February 4, Gareth Roberts, “http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/9386391.stm Wales 19-26 England]”, in BBC
9. (transitive or intransitive, soccer) To score (especially a penalty kick).
  Quotations
  Hinton, inevitably, converted the penalty.
  2011, Jonathan Wilson, Brian Clough: The Biography
  However, the lead was doubled after the break, when Branislav Ivanovic converted from close range after Fernando Torres had flicked on.
  2013, Mark Worrall, Kelvin Barker, David Johnstone, Making History, Not Reliving It: A Decade of Roman's Rule at Chelsea, page 225
  This time Polish goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski was Saints' penalty shootout hero, saving three spot kicks before centre-back Wayne Thomas converted from 12 yards to seal a 6-5 win.
  2016, Alex Crook, Alex Smith, Southampton Greatest Games: Saints' Fifty Finest Matches
10. (intransitive, ten-pin bowling) To score a spare.
11. (intransitive) To undergo a conversion of religion, faith or belief (see also sense 3).
  Quotations
  The notion of blood purity was first elaborated in Europe, where it was used to separate Old Christians from Spain’s New Christians—women and men of Jewish and Muslim origin whose ancestors had converted to Christianity.
  2009, Irene Silverblatt, “Foreword”, in Andrew B. Fisher, Matthew D. O'hara, editors, Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America, page xi
12. (intransitive) To become converted.
13. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to turn; to turn.
  Quotations
  O, which way shall I first convert myself?
  1600 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Revels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616
14. (transitive, logic) To change (one proposition) into another, so that what was the subject of the first becomes the predicate of the second.
15. (transitive, obsolete) To turn into another language; to translate.
  Quotations
  which story […] Catullus more elegantly converted
  1609, Ben Jonson, The Masque of Queens
16. (transitive, cricket) To increase one's individual score, especially from 50 runs (a fifty) to 100 runs (a century), or from a century to a double or triple century.
  Quotations
  Gillespie was reminded he had promised to join team-mate Matthew Hayden in a nude lap of the ground if he converted his century into a double.
  2006, Gillespie hails 'fairytale' knock‎, BBC
17. (intransitive, marketing) To perform the action that an online advertisement is intended to induce; to reach the point of conversion.
18. (transitive, intransitive, chess) To transform a material or positional advantage into a win.
  Quotations
  On the final day Marshall won a pawn as Black from another old rival, Hodges, but couldn't convert it and played on until a drawn king-and-pawn endgame.
  1994, Andrew Soltis, Frank Marshall, United States Chess Champion, McFarland, Inc, page 262
  In a serious game, the same event often takes place: the attacking side, out of pure inertia, tries to convert an advantage which he or she no longer has, thus giving the defending side winning chances.
  2012, Daniel Naroditsky, Mastering Complex Endgames, New In Chess, page 56
  Black has survived the attack and is better due to his active king! Many moves later, he converted.
  2021, Frank Erwich, 1001 Chess Exercises for Advanced Club Players‎, New In Chess
noun
plural converts
1. A person who has converted to a religion.
  Quotations
  While still in this relationship, Greene, a convert to Roman Catholicism at 23, was asked to be godfather to Catherine Walston, a 30-year-old married woman, at her own conversion.
  2004, Ted Jones, chapter 3, in The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers, Tauris Parke Paperbacks, published 2007, page 64
2. A person who is now in favour of something that he or she previously opposed or disliked.
3. Anyone who has converted from being one thing to being another.
  Quotations
  A great advantage of these temporary conversions of a man into a beast is that it enables the convert in his animal shape to pay out his enemy without being suspected.
  1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 11, page 207
4. (Canadian football) The equivalent of a conversion in rugby

Definition of "convert"

convert

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

Quotations