Bible Dictionary
Dictionary
CONVERT, verb transitive [Latin , to turn; coinciding in elements and signification with barter.]
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 3:19.
He that converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death. James 5:19.
5. To turn toward a point.
Crystal will callify into electricity, and convert the needle freely placed. [Unusual.]
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 ones 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.
9. To turn into another language.
CONVERT, verb intransitive To turn or be changed; to undergo a change.
The love of wicked friends converts to fear; that fear, to hate.
CONVERT, noun
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 and 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. Isaiah 1:27.
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.