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Webster 1913 Edition


Commence

Com-mence′

(kŏm-mĕns′)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Commenced
(kŏm-mĕnst′)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Commencing
.]
[F.
commencer
, OF.
comencier
, fr. L.
com-
+
initiare
to begin. See
Initiate
.]
1.
To have a beginning or origin; to originate; to start; to begin.
Here the anthem doth
commence
.
Shakespeare
His heaven
commences
ere the world be past.
Goldsmith.
2.
To begin to be, or to act as.
[Archaic]
We
commence
judges ourselves.
Coleridge.
3.
To take a degree at a university.
[Eng.]
I question whether the formality of
commencing
was used in that age.
Fuller.

Com-mence′

,
Verb.
T.
To enter upon; to begin; to perform the first act of.
Many a wooer doth
commence
his suit.
Shakespeare
☞ It is the practice of good writers to use the verbal noun (instead of the infinitive with to) after commence;
as, he
commenced studying
, not he
commenced to study
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Commence

COMMENCE

, v.i.
1.
To begin; to take rise or origin; to have first existence; as, a state of glory to commence after this life; this empire commenced at a late period.
2.
To begin to be, as in a change of character.
Let not learning too commence its foe.
3.
To take a degree or the first degree in a university or college.

COMMENCE

, v.t.
1.
To begin; to enter upon; to perform the first act; as, to commence operations.
2.
To begin; to originate; to bring; as, to commence a suit, action or process in law.

Definition 2024


commence

commence

See also: commencé

English

Verb

commence (third-person singular simple present commences, present participle commencing, simple past and past participle commenced)

  1. (intransitive) To begin, start.
    • William Shakespeare
      Here the anthem doth commence.
    • Oliver Goldsmith
      His heaven commences ere the world be past.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
  2. (transitive) To begin to be, or to act as.
  3. (Britain, intransitive, dated) To take a degree at a university.
    • Fuller
      I question whether the formality of commencing was used in that age.

Antonyms

Related terms

Translations


French

Verb

commence

  1. first-person singular present indicative of commencer
  2. third-person singular present indicative of commencer
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of commencer
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of commencer
  5. second-person singular imperative of commencer