Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.