commit Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb perform an act, usually with a negative connotation
    perpetrate; pull.
    • perpetrate a crime
    • pull a bank robbery
  2. verb give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause
    devote; consecrate; dedicate; give.
    • She committed herself to the work of God
    • give one's talents to a good cause
    • consecrate your life to the church
  3. verb cause to be admitted; of persons to an institution
    charge; send; institutionalize; institutionalise.
    • After the second episode, she had to be committed
    • he was committed to prison
  4. verb confer a trust upon
    confide; entrust; trust; intrust.
    • The messenger was entrusted with the general's secret
    • I commit my soul to God
  5. verb make an investment
    put; invest; place.
    • Put money into bonds
  6. verb engage in or perform
    practice.
    • practice safe sex
    • commit a random act of kindness

WordNet

Com*mit" transitive verb
Etymology
L. committere, commissum, to connect, commit; com- + mittere to send. See Mission.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Commited; present participle & verbal noun Commiting
Definitions
  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.
    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 intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To sin; esp., to be incontinent. Obs.
    Commit not with man's sworn spouse. Shak.

Webster 1913