Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To change (something) into another form, substance, state, or product; transform.
  • intransitive verb To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another; adapt to a new or different purpose.
  • intransitive verb To persuade or induce to adopt a particular religion, faith, or belief.
  • intransitive verb To exchange for something of equal value.
  • intransitive verb To express (a quantity) in alternative units.
  • intransitive verb Logic To transform (a proposition) by conversion.
  • intransitive verb Law To appropriate (another's property) without right to one's own use.
  • intransitive verb To complete (a conversion, penalty shot, or free throw) successfully.
  • intransitive verb To score (a spare) in bowling.
  • intransitive verb To undergo a conversion.
  • intransitive verb To be converted.
  • intransitive verb Football To make a conversion.
  • intransitive verb Sports To shoot and score a goal, especially immediately after receiving a pass or gaining control of a rebound.
  • noun One who has been converted, especially from one religion or belief to another.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A person who is converted from one opinion or practice to another; one who renounces one creed, religious system, or party, and embraces another: used particularly of those who change their religious opinions, but applicable to any change from one belief or practice to another.
  • noun In theology, one who has been changed, as to the purpose and direction of his life, from sin to holiness.
  • noun In monasteries, a lay friar or brother admitted to the service of the house, without orders, and not allowed to sing in the choir.
  • To cause to turn; turn; turn round.
  • To change or turn, as into another form or substance or, by exchange, into an equivalent thing; transmute; transform: as, to convert grain into spirits; to convert one kind of property into another; to convert bank-notes into gold.
  • To change from one state or condition to another: as, to convert a barren waste into a fruitful field; to convert rude savages into civilized men.
  • In theology, to change the purpose, direction, and spirit of the life of (another) from one of self-seeking and enmity toward God to one of love toward God and man; turn from an evil life to a holy one.
  • To change or turn from one religion to another, or from one party or sect to another, especially from one that is regarded as false to one that is regarded as true.
  • To turn from one use or destination to another; divert from the proper or intended use; specifically, in law, of personal property, unlawfully to assume ownership of, or to assert a control over, inconsistent with that of the owner; appropriate without right to one's own use, or intentionally deprive of its use the one having the right thereto.
  • In logic, to transform by conversion. See conversion, To turn into or express in another language; translate.
  • To turn in course or direction; turn about.
  • To be changed; undergo a change.
  • To experience a change of heart; change the current of one's life from worldliness or selfishness to love of God and man.
  • In ship-building: To work up, as rough plank or timber, into the shape required for use on a vessel.
  • To alter so as to change the type to which a vessel belongs: as, to convert a steamer into a sailing-ship.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be turned or changed in character or direction; to undergo a change, physically or morally.
  • noun A person who is converted from one opinion or practice to another; a person who is won over to, or heartily embraces, a creed, religious system, or party, in which he has not previously believed; especially, one who turns from the controlling power of sin to that of holiness, or from unbelief to Christianity.
  • noun A lay friar or brother, permitted to enter a monastery for the service of the house, but without orders, and not allowed to sing in the choir.
  • transitive verb obsolete To cause to turn; to turn.
  • transitive verb To change or turn from one state or condition to another; to alter in form, substance, or quality; to transform; to transmute.
  • transitive verb To change or turn from one belief or course to another, as from one religion to another or from one party or sect to another.
  • transitive verb To produce the spiritual change called conversion in (any one); to turn from a bad life to a good one; to change the heart and moral character of (any one) from the controlling power of sin to that of holiness.
  • transitive verb To apply to any use by a diversion from the proper or intended use; to appropriate dishonestly or illegally.
  • transitive verb To exchange for some specified equivalent.
  • transitive verb (Logic) To change (one proposition) into another, so that what was the subject of the first becomes the predicate of the second.
  • transitive verb obsolete To turn into another language; to translate.
  • transitive verb cast-iron guns lined with wrought-iron or steel tubes.
  • transitive verb (Steel Manuf.) a furnace in which wrought iron is converted into steel by cementation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who has converted his or her religion.
  • noun A person who is now in favour of something that he or she previously opposed or disliked.
  • verb transitive To transform or change (something) into another form, substance, state, or product.
  • verb transitive To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another.
  • verb transitive To induce (someone) to adopt a particular religion, faith, ideology or belief.
  • verb transitive To exchange for something of equal value.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English converten, from Old French convertir, from Latin convertere, to turn around : com-, intensive pref.; see com– + vertere, to turn; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French convertir, from Latin converto ("turn around")

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