Adjacent Words

Commitment definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COMMITMENT, n.
1. The act of committing; a sending to prison; a putting into prison; imprisonment. It is equivalent to sending or putting in simply; as a commitment to the tower, or to Newgate; or for the sake of brevity, omitting the name of the place, it is equivalent to putting into prison; as, the offender is secured by commitment.
2. An order for confining in prison. But more generally we use mittimus.
3. The act of referring or entrusting to a committee for consideration; a term in legislation; as the commitment of a petition or a bill to a select number of persons for consideration and report.
4. The act of delivering in charge or entrusting.
5. A doing, or perpetration, as of sin or a crime; commission.
6. The act of pledging or engaging; or the act of exposing or endangering.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose; "a man of energy and commitment" [syn: committedness, commitment]
2: the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action; "his long commitment to public service"; "they felt no loyalty to a losing team" [syn: commitment, allegiance, loyalty, dedication]
3: an engagement by contract involving financial obligation; "his business commitments took him to London"
4: a message that makes a pledge [syn: commitment, dedication]
5: the official act of consigning a person to confinement (as in a prison or mental hospital) [syn: commitment, committal, consignment]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1603 1. a. an act of committing to a charge or trust: as (1) a consignment to a penal or mental institution (2) an act of referring a matter to a legislative committee b. mittimus 2. a. an agreement or pledge to do something in the future; especially an engagement to assume a financial obligation at a future date b. something pledged c. the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled <a commitment to a cause>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 an engagement or (esp. financial) obligation that restricts freedom of action. 2 the process or an instance of committing oneself; a pledge or undertaking.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Commitment Com*mit"ment, n. 1. The act of committing, or putting in charge, keeping, or trust; consignment; esp., the act of committing 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 perpetration, 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(commitments) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Commitment is a strong belief in an idea or system. ...commitment to the ideals of Bolshevism. N-UNCOUNT: oft N to n 2. A commitment is something which regularly takes up some of your time because of an agreement you have made or because of responsibilities that you have. Work commitments forced her to uproot herself and her son from Reykjavik. N-COUNT 3. If you make a commitment to do something, you promise that you will do it. (FORMAL) We made a commitment to keep working together... They made a commitment to peace. N-COUNT: usu N to-inf, N to n 4. Commitment is the process of officially sending someone to a prison or to hospital. (AM; in BRIT, use committal) N-VAR

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Delivering, intrusting, placing in charge. 2. Imprisonment, committal, placing in confinement, putting in custody. 3. Giving in adhesion, unreserved adherence, pledged relation. 4. Reference to a committee.

Moby Thesaurus

abandon, activity, affair, agency, agentship, agreement, allegiance, altruism, ardency, ardor, assigned task, assignment, attempt, authority, authorization, bounden duty, brevet, burden, business, call of duty, campaign, care, cause, charge, commendation, commission, commissioning, committal, committedness, consecration, consignment, constancy, contract, crusade, cure, deal, decidedness, decision, decisiveness, dedication, deference, definiteness, delegated authority, delegation, deputation, determinateness, determination, determinedness, devoir, devolution, devolvement, devotedness, devotion, devoutness, disinterest, disinterestedness, drive, duties and responsibilities, duty, earnestness, effort, embassy, empowerment, enfeoffment, engagement, enterprise, entrusting, entrustment, errand, ethics, executorship, exequatur, factorship, faith, faithfulness, fastness, fealty, fervency, fervidness, fervor, fidelity, fire, firmness, full power, great cause, hallowing, heartiness, heat, heatedness, homage, humility, impassionedness, imperative, infeodation, infeudation, intensity, intentness, interest, issue, jurisdiction, legation, license, lieutenancy, lifework, line of duty, loyalty, mandate, mass movement, mission, mittimus, modesty, movement, must, need, obligation, obstinacy, office, onus, operation, ordainment, ordination, ought, passion, passionateness, perseverance, persistence, place, plan, plenipotentiary power, power of attorney, power to act, preengagement, principle, procuration, program, project, proposition, proxy, purpose, purposefulness, purview, reason for being, recognizance, recommitment, regency, regentship, relegation, relentlessness, remand, remanding, resoluteness, resolution, resolve, resolvedness, respect, responsibility, right, sacrifice, self-abasement, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-devotion, self-effacement, self-forgetfulness, self-immolation, self-imposed duty, self-neglect, self-neglectfulness, self-renouncement, self-sacrifice, self-subjection, self-will, selflessness, seriousness, sincerity, single-mindedness, spirit, staunchness, steadfastness, task, tenacity, total commitment, tried-and-trueness, triedness, trueness, trust, trusteeship, unacquisitiveness, understanding, undertaking, unpossessiveness, unselfishness, vehemence, venture, verbal agreement, vicarious authority, warmth, warrant, will, work, zeal