| 释义 |
▪ I. commute, v.|kəˈmjuːt|
[f. L. commūtā-re to change altogether, alter wholly, to exchange, interchange, f. com- together, altogether + mūtāre to change. On the analogy of words through Fr.: cf. transmute, commutate.]
1. a. trans. To give (one thing) in exchange for another, to change (for or into); to give and take (things) reciprocally, to exchange.
1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. iv. (1821) 268 May..exchange and commute..Moneys currant of England, into Moneys of this new Standerd of Ireland. 1635Austin Medit. 107 Hee commuted Estates. Hee tooke our Sinnes upon him, and gave us his Righteousnesse. a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 309 They shall find what is gold worth, and may be quickly commuted into it, great plenty of good grain. a1711Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 144 He and the Beasts seem Natures to commute, They act like Reason, and he like the Brute.
b. To put (two things) each in place of the other, substitute for each other, interchange.
1667Decay Chr. Piety (J.), This will commute our tasks, exchange these pleasant and gainful ones..for those uneasy and fruitless ones. 1832Sir W. Hamilton Disc. (1853) 107 To commute these terms in the translation of a Kantian Treatise, where subject and object..are accurately contra⁓distinguished..is to convert light into darkness. 1870Bowen Logic viii. 250 We cannot arbitrarily commute the Quantities.
c. To change for another, to alter.
1825Southey Paraguay iv. 28 All thoughts and occupations to commute, To change their air, their water, and their food. 1858J. Martineau Studies Chr. 132 The law was..treated as in theory perpetual; not as ignominiously abrogated, but as legitimately commuted.
2. ‘To buy off or ransom one obligation by another’ (J.); to change an obligation, etc. into something lighter or more agreeable; to redeem or get off an obligation by a money payment. Const. for, into rarely with.
1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter iii. 11 There is no..commuting the penance. 1639Fuller Holy War iii. xviii. (1840) 146 His holiness..absolved many of their vows from Palestine, and commuted them into a journey into France. 1660Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. i. iv. (R.), He..thinks it unlawful to commute, and that he is bound to pay his vow in kind. a1667Jer. Taylor Wks. (1835) I. 853 God will not suffer us to commute a duty, because all is his due. a1704L'Estrange (J.), Some commute swearing for whoring; as if forbearance of the one were a dispensation for the other. 1723Bp. O. Blackall Wks. I. 206 We can't commute one Duty for another, because they are both alike required. 1782H. More Daniel iv. 105 The false policy..which would commute our safety With God's eternal honour. 1859J. C. Hobhouse Italy II. 247 Little sums paid..by women who wish to..commute a penance with a small present. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvii. 542 The grant of men was commuted for a contribution in money.
3. a. To change (a punishment, or a sentence) for (to, into) another of less severity, or a fine (cf. 2).
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xvi. 111 The late custome in some places of commuting whipping into money. a1661― Worthies (1840) I. x. 42 Others..had their deaths mercifully commuted by our magistrates into banishment. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. xliv. §1 (1872) V. 298 Forfeiture was sometimes commuted to a fine. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. iii. viii. 469 The [capital] sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. 1844Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. x. (1862) 136 The..feudal practice of commuting all punishments whatever for fines.
b. with altered construction.
1681Prideaux Lett. (1875) 112 The Earl of Shaftesbury desires transportation, and would willingly commute banishment for his life. 1828D'Israeli Chas. I, II. xi. 269 The pardon was refused, but a heavy fine commuted the offence.
4. a. To change (one kind of payment) into or for another; esp. to substitute a single payment for a number of payments, a fixed payment for an irregular or uncertain one, or a payment in money for one in kind (e.g. a tithe; cf. 2).
1795Hull Advertiser 7 Mar. 3/1 The licence to wear hair powder will be commuted for a tax on powder itself. 1845McCulloch Taxation ii. iv. (1852) 188 The quantity of corn payable as rent..on account of tithe that has been commuted. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. I. 274 The legislature..might commute the average receipts of Irish landowners into a fixed rent charge and raise the tenants into proprietors. 1884Ld. Selborne in Law Rep. Chanc. Div. XXV. 689 She may commute into a capital sum..the benefit given to her..by way of annuity.
b. absol. spec. To purchase and use a commutation-ticket. Also, more generally, to travel daily or regularly to and from one's place of work in a city (by any means of conveyance); also transf. and fig. orig. U.S.
1889Cent. Dict., Commuter, one who commutes. 1906Daily Chron. 25 Feb. 4 There are many business men who practically divide their time between New York and Chicago, and ‘commute’ (the American term for taking season tickets). 1935G. Hopkins in H. O. Sturgis Belchamber p. vii, Nobody ‘commuted’ in those days, not even the resident friend of an American living near Windsor. 1937Times 24 Dec. 13/6 Small houses in the country, from which the men will ‘commute’ to New York, travelling to and fro each day by train. 1947Auden Age of Anxiety iii. 76 A married tribe commutes, mild from suburbia. 1954Southern Daily Echo 25 May, He spends the winter in the West Indies and summer in England, commuting back and forth like the migrating swallows. 1959Cambridge Rev. 16 May 507/1 The dons commute daily to the college. 1962Daily Tel. 19 Mar. 15/4 The people who are ‘something in the City’ to-day mostly commute to Sussex and Surrey. 1966Listener 14 July 49/1 Ken Russell and John Boorman commute with ease between the two worlds.
5. intr.
a. To make up, compensate, compound for.
b. Of things: To serve as a substitute for.
1645Evelyn Diary (1827) I. 337 Built..by Margaret of Verona, a courtezan..and by this..[she] hoped to commute for her sins. 1653Walton Angler 156 Because I cut you short in that, I will commute for it, by telling you..a secret. 1663J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 378 Perhaps the shame and misery of this life may commute for hell. 1782W. F. Martyn Geog. Mag. I. 40 The Greeks enjoin confessions and penances..for the latter they are allowed to commute.
6. Electr. trans. To regulate (the direction of an electric current), esp. so that the direction of the current is made continuous.
1884S. P. Thompson Dyn.-Electr. Mach. vii. 132 Each delivering alternate currents to a commutator, which com mutes them to intermittent uni-directional currents in the brushes. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 578/1 The current may be commuted. Ibid. 579/2 To commute its direction in any coil as it passes through the interpolar gap.
7. Algebra. intr. Of two or more algebraic quantities: to give an identical result in whatever order they are written down. Cf. commutative a. 2.
1928H. W. Turnbull Theory of Determinants xvi. 257 K commutes with the operator βα. 1958P. A. M. Dirac Princ. Quantum Mech. (ed. 4) ii. 24 It may happen as a special case that two linear operators ξ and η are such that ξη and ηξ are equal. In this case we say that ξ commutes with η, or that ξ and η commute. 1964A. P. & W. Robertson Topological Vector Spaces viii. 145 Suppose also that u and v commute (i.e. uov = vou).
Hence coˈmmuted ppl. a., coˈmmuting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1659Milton Civ. Power Wks. (1851) 309 A popish commuting of penaltie, corporal for spiritual. 1677Otway Cheats of Scapin ii. i, They'll..tell all your Fornications, Bastardings, and Commutings in their Courts. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxviii. 671 Commuted payments for customary labour. 1934Amer. Speech IX. 261 Of all commuting ladies the élite, They chase the glowing hours with flying feet. 1953A. Huxley Let. 11 June (1969) 674, I wouldn't, if I were you, retire to a shack... The commuting will be a great burden. 1957J. Braine Room at Top xii. 118, I thoroughly dislike commuting—people should live and work in the same place.
▪ II. coˈmmute, n. U.S.
[f. the vb. (sense 4 b).]
A journey made in commuting, esp. to or from one's place of work; the distance travelled.
1960Time 21 Nov. 100/2 He frequently test-drives a competitor's car on his commute to Ann Arbor. 1968Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 12 Oct. 16 A liberal-minded chap in a New York suburb put his house on the market and got ready to move to one where there was more room for his family and which was an easier commute. 1973M. Truman Harry S. Truman v. 97 On this semiannual commute, we always went by car. 1982‘S. F. X. Dean’ Such Pretty Toys (1983) v. 64 Doan didn't think the sixty-mile commute each way every day was any problem. |