COMMUTING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Commuting

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/kəmjˈutɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Commute v. t. (past & past part. commuted; pres. part. commuting)

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." "The utmost that could be obtained was that her sentence should be commuted from burning to beheading."

Commute v. i.

To obtain or bargain for exemption or substitution; to effect a commutation. "He... thinks it unlawful to commute, and that he is bound to pay his vow in kind."

To pay, or arrange to pay, in gross instead of part by part; as, to commute for a year's travel over a route.

To travel regularly from a place of residence to another place, such as where one's daily work is performed. Often, such travel is performed between a suburb and a nearby city; as, to commute to work.

noun

commuting n. The process of travel by a commuter.

Synonyms: commutation.

See images of 'Commuting'

Etymology of 'Commuting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Commuting" Quotes from Famous Books

... two—professors and young painters and that sort. Milly could not see how it was done,—probably in ghastly apartments out in the hinterland, like the Reddons. The newspapers advertised astonishing bargains in houses, but they were always in fantastically named suburban places, "within commuting distance." One had to live where one's friends could get to you, or ...

— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick

... clear that, whether what had been done was or was not a mistake, to undo it would be a greater mistake. Accordingly Mr. Lincoln only showed that he felt the pressure of the criticism and denunciation by commuting the sentence, and directing that Vallandigham should be released from confinement and sent within the Confederate lines,—which was, indeed, a very shrewd and clever move, and much better than the imprisonment. Accordingly the quasi ...

— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II • John T. Morse

... but happily, like many other great abuses, it gave rise to a great reform, which went much further than its immediate purposes. This disorder, which the punishment of offenders could only palliate, was entirely taken away by commuting personal service for a rent in money; which regulation, passing from the king to all the inferior lords, in a short time wrought a great change in the state of the nation. To humble the great men, more arbitrary methods were used. The adherence to the title of Robert was a cause, ...

— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... Chubbs-Jenkinson, the only son of what they call a soda king, and orders a curate to lick his boots. And when the curate punches his head, you first sentence him to be shot; and then make a great show of clemency by commuting it to a flogging. What did you expect the ...

— Press Cuttings • George Bernard Shaw

... Covenants and Protestations that we have made! this is not to put down prelaty; this is but to chop an episcopacy; this is but to translate the Palace Metropolitan from one kind of dominion into another; this is but an old canonical sleight of commuting our penance. To startle thus betimes at a mere unlicensed pamphlet will after a while be afraid of every conventicle, and a while after will make a conventicle of every Christian meeting. But I am certain that a State governed by ...

— Areopagitica - A Speech For The Liberty Of Unlicensed Printing To The - Parliament Of England • John Milton

... sister, probably married to some one about the Court, was in the family way, and her health would be endangered if the execution was proceeded with. So down comes Charles the Seventh with letters of mercy, commuting the penalty to a year in a dungeon on bread and water, and a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in Galicia. Alas! the document was incomplete; it did not contain the full tale of Montigny's enormities; ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 3 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson