/keuh myooht"/ , v. , commuted, commuting , n.
v.t.
1. to change (a prison sentence or other penalty) to a less severe one: The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
2. to exchange for another or for something else; give and take reciprocally; interchange.
3. to change: to commute base metal into gold.
4. to change (one kind of payment) into or for another, as by substitution.
v.i.
5. to travel regularly over some distance, as from a suburb into a city and back: He commutes to work by train.
6. to make substitution.
7. to serve as a substitute.
8. to make a collective payment, esp. of a reduced amount, as an equivalent for a number of payments.
9. Math. to give the same result whether operating on the left or on the right.
n.
10. a trip made by commuting: It's a long commute from his home to his office.
11. an act or instance of commuting.
[ 1400-50; 1885-90 for def. 5; late ME commutare to change, replace, exchange, equiv. to com- COM- + mutare to change ]