- Commuted
- Commute Com*mute" (k[o^]m*m[=u]t"), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
{Commuted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Commuting}.] [L. commutare,
-mutatum; com- + mutare to change. See {Mutation}.]
1. To exchange; to put or substitute something else in place
of, as a smaller penalty, obligation, or payment, for a
greater, or a single thing for an aggregate; hence, to
lessen; to diminish; as, to commute a sentence of death to
one of imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to
commute charges for fares.
[1913 Webster]
The sounds water and fire, being once annexed to those two elements, it was certainly more natural to call beings participating of the first ``watery'', and the last ``fiery'', than to commute the terms, and call them by the reverse. --J. Harris [1913 Webster]
The utmost that could be obtained was that her sentence should be commuted from burning to beheading. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
