Com-mit′1, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. COMMITTED; p. pr. & vb. n. COMMITTING.] [Lat. committere, to send to, to connect, to commit, from com, for con, and mittere, to send; Fr. commettre, Pr. cometre, Sp. & Pg. cometer, It. commettere.]
Sense 1. To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to intrust; to deposit.
Bid him farewell, commit him to the grave. Shak.
Some of the chief malcontents were committed to prison. Macaulay.
Sense 2. To do; to perform; to effect or perpetrate.
Lands and tenements commit no treason. Dryden.
Sense 3. To join for a contest; to match;—followed by with. [Rare.]
How . . . does Philopolis . . . commit the opponent with the respondent. Henry More.
Sense 4. To place beyond one's control; to pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger;—generally reflexively; as, to commit one's self to evil.
You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship without committing 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.
Sense 5. 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, to learn by heart; to memorize.
Synonyms—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 expresses only the general idea of delivering into the charge of another; as, to commit a lawsuit to the care of an attorney. To intrust rises higher, and denotes the act of committing in the exercise of confidence or trust; as, to intrust a friend with the care of a child. 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. These words are also used in a secondary or figurative sense; as, an author commits his thoughts to writing; he intrusts a friend with the secret of having done so; and finally consigns his work to the press.
All things committed to thy trust conceal. Denham.
Intrusted riches to relieve the poor. Dryden.
Must I pass Again to nothing, when this vital breath, Ceasing, consigns me o'er to rest and death? Prior.