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more about commuted
commuted |
1 definition found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Commute \Com*mute"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Commuted}; p. pr & vb n. {Commuting}.] [L. commutare, -mutatum; com- + mutare to change. See {Mutation}.] To exchange; to put or substitute something else in place of as a smaller penalty, obligation, or payment, for a greater, or a single thing for an aggregate; hence to lessen; to diminish; as to commute a sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges for fares. The sounds water and fire, being once annexed to those two elements, it was certainly more natural to call beings participating of the first ``watery'', and the last ``fiery'', than to commute the terms, and call them by the reverse. --J. Harris The utmost that could be obtained was that her sentence should be commuted from burning to beheading. --Macaulay.
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