1. [n]  one who has been converted to another religious or political belief
2. [v]  change in nature, purpose, or function; esp. undergo a chemical change; "The substance converts to an acid"
3. [v]  change the nature, purpose, or function of something; "convert lead into gold"; "convert hotels into jails"; "convert slaves to laborers"
4. [v]  exchange or replace with another, usually of the same kind or category; "Could you convert my dollars into pounds?"; "He changed his name"; "convert centimeters into inches"; "convert holdings into shares"
5. [v]  exchange a penalty for a less severe one
6. [v]  change from one system to another or to a new plan or policy; "We converted from 220 to 110 Volt"
7. [v]  change religious beliefs, or adopt a religious belief; "She converted to Buddhism"
8. [v]  cause to adopt a new or different faith; "The missionaries converted the Indian population"
9. [v]  make (someone) agree, understand, or realize the truth or validity of something; "He had finally convinced several customers of the advantages of his product"

1. \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.]
            O, which way shall I first convert myself? --B.
                                                  Jonson.
   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.
            If the whole atmosphere were converted into water.
                                                  --T. Burnet.
            That still lessens The sorrow, and converts it nigh
            to joy.                               --Milton.
   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.
            No attempt was made to convert the Moslems.
                                                  --Prescott.
   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.
            He which converteth the sinner from the error of his
            way shall save a soul from death.     --Lames v. 20.
   5. To apply to any use by a diversion from the proper or
      intended use; to appropriate dishonestly or illegally.
            When a bystander took a coin to get it changed, and
            converted it, [it was] held no larceny. --Cooley.
   6. To exchange for some specified equivalent; as, to convert
      goods into money.
   7. (Logic) To change (one proposition) into another, so that
      what was the subject of the first becomes the predicate of
      the second.
   8. To turn into another language; to translate. [Obs.]
            Which story . . . Catullus more elegantly converted.
                                                  --B. Jonson.
   {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.
   

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

3. \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.
            The Jesuits did not persuade the converts to lay
            aside the use of images.              --Bp.
                                                  Stillingfleet.
   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.
   

1. String processing language, combined the pattern matching and transformation operations of COMIT with the recursive data structures of Lisp. "Convert", A. Guzman et al, CACM 9(8):604-615 (Aug 1966).

2. Early language to convert programs and data from one language to another. "CONVERT Manual", OLI Systems Inc (Oct 1976).