Part 380

These two were committed. Clarendon.

3. To do; to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Ex. xx. 14.

4. To join for a contest; to match; -- followed by with. [R.] Dr. H. More.

5. To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step; -- often used reflexively; as, to commit one's self to a certain course.

You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship, without commiting 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.

6. 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, or To commit, to learn by heart; to memorize.

Syn. -- 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 may express only the general idea of delivering into the charge of another; as, to commit a lawsuit to the care of an attorney; or it may have the special sense of intrusting with or without limitations, as to a superior power, or to a careful servant, or of consigning, as to writing or paper, to the flames, or to prison. To intrust denotes the act of committing to the exercise of confidence or trust; as, to intrust a friend with the care of a child, or with a secret. 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; to consign a work to the press.

Com"mit, v. i. To sin; esp., to be incontinent. [Obs.]

Commit not with man's sworn spouse. Shak.

Com*mit"ment (?), n. 1. The act of committing, or putting in charge, keeping, or trust; consignment; esp., the act of committing to prison.

They were glad to compound for his bare commitment to the Tower, whence he was within few days enlarged. Clarendon.

2. A warrant or order for the imprisonment of a person; -- more frequently termed a mittimus.

3. The act of referring or intrusting to a committee for consideration and report; as, the commitment of a petition or a bill.

4. A doing, or perpetration, in a bad sense, as of a crime or blunder; commission.

5. The act of pledging or engaging; the act of exposing, endangering, or compromising; also, the state of being pledged or engaged. Hamilton.

Com*mit"ta*ble (?), a. Capable of being committed.

Com*mit"tal (?), n. The act of committing, or the state of being committed; commitment.

Com*mit"tee (?), n. [Cf. OF. comitÚ company, and LL. comitatus jurisdiction or territory of a count, county, assize, army. The word was apparently influenced by the verb commit, but not directly formed from it. Cf. County.] One or more persons elected or appointed, to whom any matter or business is referred, either by a legislative body, or by a court, or by any collective body of men acting together.

Committee of the whole [house], a committee, embracing all the members present, into which a legislative or deliberative body sometimes resolves itself, for the purpose of considering a particular measure under the operation of different rules from those governing the general legislative proceedings. The committee of the whole has its own chairman, and reports its action in the form of recommendations. -- Standing committee. See under Standing.

Com`mit*tee" (?), n. [From Commit, v. t.] (Law) One to whom the charge of the person or estate of another, as of a lunatic, is committed by suitable authority; a guardian.

Com*mit"tee*man (?), n. A member of a committee.

Com*mit"ter (?), n. 1. One who commits; one who does or perpetrates. South.

2. A fornicator. [Obs.] T. Decker.

Com*mit"ti*ble (?), a. Capable of being committed; liable to be committed. [R.] Sir T. Browne.