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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Convert \Con"vert\, n.
1. 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.
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The Jesuits did not persuade the converts to lay
aside the use of images. --Bp.
Stillingfleet.
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2. 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.

Syn: Proselyte; neophyte.

Usage: {Convert}, {Proselyte}, {Pervert}. A convert is one
who turns from what he believes to have been a decided
error of faith or practice. Such a change may relate
to religion, politics, or other subjects. properly
considered, it is not confined to speculation alone,
but affects the whole current of one's feelings and
the tenor of his actions. As such a change carries
with it the appearance of sincerity, the term convert
is usually taken in a good sense. Proselyte is a term
of more ambiguous use and application. It was first
applied to an adherent of one religious system who had
transferred himself externally to some other religious
system; and is also applied to one who makes a similar
transfer in respect to systems of philosophy or
speculation. The term has little or no reference to
the state of the heart. Pervert is a term of recent
origin, designed to express the contrary of convert,
and to stigmatize a person as drawn off perverted from
the true faith. It has been more particulary applied
by members of the Church of England to those who have
joined the Roman Catholic Church.
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Convert \Con*vert"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Converted}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Converting}.] [L. convertere, -versum; con- vertere
to turn: cf. F. convertir. See {Verse}.]
1. To cause to turn; to turn. [Obs.]
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O, which way shall I first convert myself? --B.
Jonson.
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2. To change or turn from one state or condition to another;
to alter in form, substance, or quality; to transform; to
transmute; as, to convert water into ice.
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If the whole atmosphere were converted into water.
--T. Burnet.
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That still lessens
The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy. --Milton.
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3. 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.
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No attempt was made to convert the Moslems.
--Prescott.
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4. 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.
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He which converteth the sinner from the error of his
way shall save a soul from death. --Lames v. 20.
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5. To apply to any use by a diversion from the proper or
intended use; to appropriate dishonestly or illegally.
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When a bystander took a coin to get it changed, and
converted it, [it was] held no larceny. --Cooley.
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6. To exchange for some specified equivalent; as, to convert
goods into money.
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7. (Logic) To change (one proposition) into another, so that
what was the subject of the first becomes the predicate of
the second.
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8. To turn into another language; to translate. [Obs.]
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Which story . . . Catullus more elegantly converted.
--B. Jonson.
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{Converted guns}, cast-iron guns lined with wrought-iron or
steel tubes. --Farrow.

{Converting furnace} (Steel Manuf.), a furnace in which
wrought iron is converted into steel by cementation.

Syn: To change; turn; transmute; appropriate.
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Convert \Con*vert"\, v. i.
To be turned or changed in character or direction; to undergo
a change, physically or morally.
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If Nebo had had the preaching that thou hast, they [the
Neboites] would have converted. --Latimer.
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A red dust which converth into worms. --Sandys.
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The public hope
And eye to thee converting. --Thomson.
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