Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON-VENT'U-AL, a. [Fr. conventuel.]

Belonging to a convent; monastic; as conventual priors.

CON-VENT'U-AL, n.

One that lives in a convent; a monk or nun. – Addison.

CON-VERGE', v.i. [converj'; Low L. convergo; con and vergo, to incline. See Verge.]

To tend to one point; to incline and approach nearer together, as two lines which continually approach each other; opposed to diverse. Lines which converge in one direction diverge in the other. The mountains converge into a single ridge. – Jefferson.

CON-VERG'ENCE, or CON-VERG'EN-CY, n.

The quality of converging; tendency to one point. Gregory.

CON-VERG'ENT, a.

Tending to one point; approaching each other, as they proceed or are extending.

CON-VERG'ING, ppr.

Tending to one point; approaching each other, as lines extended. Converging rays, in optics, those rays of light, which proceeding from different points of an object, approach, meet and cross, and become diverging rays. – Encyc. Converging series, in mathematics, is that in which the magnitude of the several terms gradually diminishes. – Encyc.

CON-VERS'A-BLE, a. [It. conversabile; Fr. conversable. See Converse.]

Qualified for conversation, or rather disposed to converse; ready or inclined to mutual communication of thoughts; sociable; free in discourse. – Addison.

CON-VERS'A-BLE-NESS, n.

The quality of being free in conversation; disposition or readiness to converse; sociability.

CON-VERS'A-BLY, adv.

In a conversable manner.

CON-VERS'ANCE, or CON-VERS'AN-CY, n.

Disposition to associate; habit of familiarity.

CON'VER-SANT, a. [L. conversante. See Converse.]

1. Keeping company; having frequent or customary intercourse; intimately associating; familiar by fellowship or cohabitation; acquainted. But the men were very good to us … as long as we were conversant with them. – 1 Sam. xxv. Never to be infected with delight, / Nor conversant with ease and idleness. – Shak.
2. Acquainted by familiar use or study. We correct our style, and improve our taste, by being conversant with the best classical writers. In the foregoing applications, this word is most generally followed by with, according to present usage. In was formerly used; and both in and among may be used.
3. Concerning; having concern or relation to; having for its object; followed by about. Education is conversant about children. – Wotton.

CON'VERS-ANT-LY, adv.

In a conversant or familiar manner.

CON-VERS-A'TION, n.

1. General course of manners; behavior; deportment; especially as it respects morals. Let your conversation be as becometh the gospel. – Phil. i. Be ye holy in all manner of conversation. – 1 Pet. i. [In this sense nearly obsolete.]
2. A keeping company; familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association; commerce in social life. Knowledge of men and manners is best acquired by conversation with the best company.
3. Intimate and familiar acquaintance; as, a conversation with books or other objects.
4. Familiar discourse; general intercourse of sentiments; chat; unrestrained talk, opposed to a formal conference. What I mentioned in conversation was not a new thought. – Swift. [This is now the most general use of the word.]

CON-VERS-A'TION-AL, a.

Pertaining to conversation; done in mutual discourse or talk.

CON-VERS-A'TION-ED, a.

Acquainted with the manner of acting in life. [Not used.] – Beaum.

CON-VERS-A'TION-IST, n.

One who excels in conversation.

CON-VERS'A-TIVE, a.

Relating to an intercourse with men; opposed to contemplative. She chose to endue him with conversative qualities of youth. – Wotton.

CON-VER-SA-ZI-O'NE, n. [It.]

A meeting of company. – Gray.

CON'VERSE, n.

1. Conversation; familiar discourse or talk; free interchange of thoughts or opinions. Formed by thy converse happily to steer / From grave to gay, from lively to severe. – Pope.
2. Acquaintance by frequent or customary intercourse; cohabitation; familiarity. In this sense, the word may include discourse, or not; as, to hold converse with persons of different sects; or to hold converse with terrestrial things.
3. In mathematics, an opposite proposition; thus, after drawing a conclusion from something supposed, we invert the order, making the conclusion the supposition or premises, and draw from it what was first supposed. Thus if two sides of a triangle are equal, the angles opposite the sides are equal; and the converse is true; if these angles are equal, the two sides are equal. – Chambers. Bailey.

CON-VERSE, v.i. [convers'; L. conversor; con and versor, to be turned; Fr. converser; It. conversare; Sp. conversar. Literally, to be turned to or with; to be turned about.]

1. To keep company; to associate; to cohabit; to hold intercourse and be intimately acquainted; followed by with. … for him who lonely loves / To seek the distant hills, and there converse / With nature. – Thomson.
2. To have sexual commerce. – Guardian.
3. To talk familiarly; to have free intercourse in mutual communication of thoughts and opinions; to convey thoughts reciprocally; followed by with before the person addressed, and on before the subject. Converse as friend with friend. We have often conversed with each other on the merit of Milton's poetry. [This is now the most general use of the word.]

CON'VERSE-LY, adv.

With change of order; in a contrary order; reciprocally. – Johnson.

CON-VER'SION, n. [L. conversio. See Convert.]

1. In a general sense, a turning or change from one state to another; with regard to substances, transmutation; as, a conversion of water into ice, or of food into chyle or blood.
2. In military affairs, a change of front, as when a body of troops is attacked in the flank, and they change their position to face the enemy.
3. In a theological or moral sense, a change of heart, or dispositions, in which the enmity of the heart to God and his law and the obstinacy of the will are subdued, and are succeeded by supreme love to God and his moral government, and a reformation of life.
4. Change from one side or party to another. That conversion will be suspected that apparently concurs with interest. – Johnson.
5. A change from one religion to another; as, the conversion of the Gentiles. – Acts xv.
6. The act of appropriating to private use; as, in trover and conversion. Conversion of equations, in algebra, the reduction of equations by multiplication, or the manner of altering an equation, when the quantity sought or any member of it is a fraction; the reducing of a fractional equation into an integral one. – Encyc. Bailey. Johnson. Conversion of propositions, in logic, is a changing of the subject into the place of the predicate, and still maintaining the quality of the proposition. – Bailey. Conversion of the ratios, in arithmetic, is the comparing of the antecedent with the difference of the antecedent and consequent, in two equal ratios or proportions. – Bailey.

CON'VERT, n.

1. A person who is converted from one opinion or practice to another; a person who renounces one creed, religious system or party, and embraces another; applied particularly to those who change their religious opinions, but applicable to political or philosophical sects.
2. In a more strict sense, one who is turned from sin to holiness. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. – Is. i.
3. In monasteries, a lay-friar or brother, admitted to the service of the house, without orders, and not allowed to sing in the choir. – Encyc.

CON-VERT', v.i.

To turn or be changed; to undergo a change. The love of wicked friends converts to fear: / That fear, to hate. – Shak.

CON-VERT', v.t. [L. converto; con and verto, to turn; coinciding in elements and signification with barter, and probably from the root of very, vario, veer, Sp. birar, Port. virar, to turn. Class Br.]

1. To change or turn into another substance or form; as, to convert gases into water, or water into ice.
2. To change from one state to another; as, to convert a barren waste into a fruitful field; to convert a wilderness into a garden; to convert rude savages into civilized men.
3. To change or turn from one religion to another, or from one party or sect to another; as, to convert pagans to Christianity; to convert royalists into republicans.
4. To turn from a bad life to a good one; to change the heart and moral character, from enmity to God and from vicious habits, to love of God and to a holy life. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. – Acts iii. He that converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death. – James v.
5. To turn toward a point. Crystal will callify into electricity, and convert the needle freely placed. [Unusual.] – Brown.
6. To turn from one use or destination to another; as, to convert liberty into an engine of oppression.
7. To appropriate or apply to one's own use, or to personal benefit; as, to convert public property to our own use.
8. To change one proposition into another, so that what was the subject of the first becomes the predicate of the second; as, all sin is a transgression of the law; but every transgression of the law is sin. – Hale.
9. To turn into another language. – B. Jonson.