Syn. — To Commit, Intrust, Consign. These words have in common the idea of transferring from one's self to the care and custody of another. Commit is the widest term, and may express only the general idea of delivering into the charge of another; as, to commit a lawsuit to the care of an attorney; or it may have the special sense of intrusting with or without limitations, as to a superior power, or to a careful servant, or of consigning, as to writing or paper, to the flames, or to prison. To intrust denotes the act of committing to the exercise of confidence or trust; as, to intrust a friend with the care of a child, or with a secret. To consign is a more formal act, and regards the thing transferred as placed chiefly or wholly out of one's immediate control; as, to consign a pupil to the charge of his instructor; to consign goods to an agent for sale; to consign a work to the press.
COMMIT
Com"mit, v. i.
Defn: To sin; esp., to be incontinent. [Obs.]
Commit not with man's sworn spouse. Shak.
COMMITMENT
Com*mit"ment, n.
1. The act of commiting, or putting in charge, keeping, or trust; consigment; esp., the act of commiting to prison. They were glad to compound for his bare commitment to the Tower, whence he was within few days enlarged. Clarendon.
2. A warrant or order for the imprisonment of a person; — more frequently termed a mittimus.
3. The act of referring or intrusting to a committee for consideration and report; as, the commitment of a petition or a bill.
4. A doing, or preperation, in a bad sense, as of a crime or blunder; commission.
5. The act of pledging or engaging; the act of exposing, endangering, or compromising; also, the state of being pledged or engaged. Hamilton.
COMMITTABLE
Com*mit"ta*ble, a.