SG Heritage Dictionary

Conversion [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. In a general sense, a turning or change from one state to another; with regard to substances, transmutation; as a conversion of water into ice, or of food into chyle or blood.

2. In military affairs, a change of front, as when a body of troops is attacked in the flank, and they change their position to face the enemy.

3. In a theological or moral sense, a change of heart, or dispositions, in which the enmity of the heart to God and his law and the obstinacy of the will are subdued, and are succeeded by supreme love to God and his moral government, and a reformation of life.

4. Change from one side or party to another.

5. That conversion will be suspected that apparently concurs with interest.

6. A change from one religion to another; as the conversion of the Gentiles. Acts 15:3 .

7. The act of appropriating to private use; as in trover and conversion

8. CONVERSION of equations, in algebra, the reduction of equations by multiplication, or the manner of altering an equation, when the quantity sought or any member of it is a fraction; the reducing of a fractional equation into an integral one.

9. CONVERSION of propositions, in logic, is a changing of the subject into the place of the predicate, and still retaining the quality of the proposition.

10. CONVERSION of the ratios, in arithmetic, is the comparing of the antecedent with the difference of the antecedent and consequent, in two equal ratios or proportions.

Conversion [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. The act of turning or changing from one state or condition to another, or the state of being changed; transmutation; change.

2. The act of changing one's views or course, as in passing from one side, party, or from of religion to another; also, the state of being so changed.

3. An appropriation of, and dealing with the property of another as if it were one's own, without right; as, the conversion of a horse.

4. The act of interchanging the terms of a proposition, as by putting the subject in the place of the predicate, or the contrary.

5. A change or reduction of the form or value of a proposition; as, the conversion of equations; the conversion of proportions.

6. A change of front, as a body of troops attacked in the flank.

7. A change of character or use, as of smoothbore guns into rifles.

8. A spiritual and moral change attending a change of belief with conviction; a change of heart; a change from the service of the world to the service of God; a change of the ruling disposition of the soul, involving a transformation of the outward life.

Conversion Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

a change from one state or character to another. Conversion, considered theologically, consists in a renovation of the heart and life, or a being turned from sin and the power of Satan unto God, Acts xxvi, 18; and is produced by the influence of divine grace upon the soul. This is conversion considered as a state of mind; and is opposed both to a careless and unawakened state, and to that state of conscious guilt and slavish dread, accompanied with struggles after a moral deliverance not yet attained, which precedes our justification and regeneration; both of which are usually understood to be comprised in conversion. But this is not the only Scriptural import of the term; for the first _turning_ of the whole heart to God in penitence and prayer is generally termed conversion. In its stricter sense, as given above, it is, however, now generally used by divines.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
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