commit - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Inherited from Middle English committen, itself borrowed from Latin committō (“to bring together, join, compare, commit (a wrong), incur, give in charge, etc.”), from com- (“together”) + mittō (“to send”). See mission.

commit (third-person singular simple present commits, present participle committing, simple past and past participle committed)

  1. (transitive) To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.
    Commit these numbers to memory.
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 52, column 1:
      Bid him farwell, commit him to the Graue,
    • 1748, [David Hume], “Essay XII. Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy.”, in Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, part III, page 256:
      If we take in hand any Volume; of Divinity or School Metaphyſics, for Inſtance; let us aſk, Does it contain any abſtract Reaſonings concerning Quantity or Number? No. Does it contain any experimental Reaſonings concerning Matters of Fact or Exiſtence? No. Commit it then to the Flames: For it can contain nothing but Sophiſtry and Illuſion.
    • 2026 March 18, Christian Wolmar, “Wales sets example with long-term rail strategy”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 43:
      That, as one of my more sceptical industry insiders put it, is because there is a reluctance to commit funds to any of these plans - and we can put the blame firmly on the fact that HS2 is eating up £7bn per year for the whole term of this parliament.
  2. (transitive) To imprison: to forcibly place in a jail.
    • 1641, A Great Conspiracy by the Papiſts in the Kingdome of Ireland, Diſcovered by the Lords Juſtices, and Counſell at Dublin, and Proclaimed There Octob. 23, 1641‎[1], page 2:
      and ſome of the Conſpirators committed to the Caſtle of Dublin by us
  3. (transitive) To forcibly evaluate and treat in a medical facility, particularly for presumed mental illness.
    Tony should be committed to a nuthouse!
  4. (transitive) To do (something bad); to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.
    to commit murder
    to commit a series of heinous crimes
  5. (ambitransitive) To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step. (Traditionally used only reflexively but now also without oneself etc.)[1]
    to commit oneself to a certain action
    to commit to a relationship
    • 8 March, 1769, Junius, letter to the Duke of Grafton
      You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship, without committing the honour of your sovereign.
    • 1805, John Marshall, chapter VII, in The Life of George Washington, […], volume III, Philadelphia, Pa.: […] C. P. Wayne, →OCLC, page 387:
      [The general cautioned] both these officers against any sudden assent they might inadvertently give to the proposal, if made to them also, which might possibly be considered as committing the faith of the United States.
    • 2005 July 31, Teri Karush Rogers, quoting Julie Friedman, “Fear of Committing?”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 25 November 2021:
      […] the perennial bachelor and “the single woman who has never married, who is afraid to commit to an apartment, because she's afraid if she somehow commits to a studio or one-bedroom then she's never going to get married,” said Julie Friedman, a senior associate broker at Bellmarc Realty.
    • 2019 December 9, qntm, “Wild Light”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, pages 191–192:
      And what actinic, mind-wrenching form could the countermeme take? How could human hands assemble something so devastatingly powerful and hold it steady; what human mind could wield it without exploding from the inside out? What would deploying that concept in anger do to human ideatic space? How far out from the solution is modern memetic science, a year, a century? What insane impossibility has Hughes just committed himself to?
  6. (transitive, computing, databases) To make a set of changes permanent.
    • 2005, Thearon Willis, Beginning Visual Basic 2005 Databases, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 343:
      When all SQL statements in the transaction are executed successfully, the transaction is committed and all the work that the SQL statements performed is made a permanent part of the database.
    • 2014, Wlodzimierz Gajda, Git Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, Apress, →ISBN, page 86:
      We can commit all unstaged files with one command: […]
  7. (transitive, programming) To integrate new revisions into the public or master version of a file in a version control system.
  8. (intransitive, obsolete) To enter into a contest; to match; often followed by with.[2]
    • 1616, Beniamin Ionson [_i.e._, Ben Jonson], “Poetaster. [To the Reader.]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, →OCLC, page 348:
      For, in theſe ſtrifes, and on ſuch perſons, were as wretched to affect a victorie, as it is vnhappy to be committed with them.
    • 1677, Richard Gilpin, “part II, chapter VII”, in Dæmonologia Sacra‎[3], London: J. D., page 313:
      […] and from hence ( as when Fire and Water are committed together ) ariſeth a most troubleſome conflict.
    • 1877 [1804 March 4], Lord Castlereagh, quotee, “part II, chapter VII”, in Sidney James Owen, editor, Selection from the Despatches, Treaties, and Other Papers of the Marquess Wellesley […] ‎[4], Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 263:
      […] whilst it commits us in hostility with the three greatest military powers of the empire.
  9. (transitive, obsolete, Latinism) To confound.
    • 1673, John Milton, “[Sonnet] XIII. To Mr. H. Lawes, on his Aires.”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], →OCLC, page 57:
      Harry whoſe tuneful and well meaſur'd Song / Firſt taught our Engliſh Muſick how to ſpan / Words with juſt note and accent, not to ſcan / With Midas Ears, committing ſhort and long;
  10. (obsolete, intransitive) To commit an offence; especially, to fornicate.
  1. (obsolete, intransitive) To be committed or perpetrated; to take place; to occur.

to entrust; to consign

to have someone enter an institution as a patient

to do (something bad); to perpetrate — see also perpetrate

to join a contest

to pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger

computing: to make changes permanent

integrate new revisions into the public version of a file

commit (plural commits)

  1. (computing, databases) The act of committing (e.g. a database transaction), making it a permanent change; such a change.
    • 1988, Klaus R Dittrich, Advances in Object-Oriented Database Systems: 2nd International Workshop:
      To support locking and process synchronization independently of transaction commits, the server provides semaphore objects […]
    • 2009, Jon Loeliger, Version Control with Git:
      Every Git commit represents a single, atomic changeset with respect to the previous state.
  2. (programming) The submission of source code or other material to a source control repository.
  3. (informal, sports, chiefly US, otherwise proscribed) A person, especially a high school athlete, who agrees verbally or signs a letter committing to attend a college or university.

(computing) act of committing, making a permanent change

submission of source code

Translations to be checked

  1. ^ http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_speech/v074/74.3shapiro.html
  2. ^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Commit, v.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume II (C), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 684, column 1.

commit

  1. third-person singular past historic of commettre