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.