commutate

verb — 6 senses

commutate

verb

Etymology Back-formation from commutation (in the late 19th century), as is commutator (noun) too.

1

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics To reverse the direction of (a current).

  • Continuously rated machines shall be required to commutate successfully momentary loads of 150% of the Amperes corresponding to the continuous rating keeping the rheostat set for rated load excitation.2013, Freidrich Nettel, Comparison of Principal Points of Standards for Electrical Machinea & Transformers: German, British, & American Standards compared, →ISBN, page 19:
2

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics To convert from being or using an alternating current into being or using a direct current.

  • In line commutation, advantage of the a.c. supply going through zero value at every half-cycle is taken to commutate the thyristor.2009, S.K. Bhattacharya, Fundamentals Of Power Electronics, 1E, →ISBN, page 72:
3

Mathematics, Sciences To commute; to be invariant under a reversal of the positions of operands.

  • The match of two finite line segments in 2 dimensions requires 2 translations, 1 rotation, 1 scale transformation; the order is here important, and these operators cannot commutate.2012, J. Kittler, V.W. Fu, L.F Pau, Pattern Recognition Theory and Applications, →ISBN, page 194:
4

Business, Finance To commute; to change one kind of payment into another, especially to convert from several installments to a single lumpsum payment.

  • Ah, commutation. I knew there was something else. This is where you can commutate your weekly payments into a lump sum and be rid of the “system”.2012, Stewart, Workers Compensation: Rorting the System Or System Rorted?, →ISBN:
5

Law To remove or reduce the legal obligations or restrictions on

  • Specifically, the seminary was challenged by industrial millers who petitioned to build steam-powered mills and by large Montreal property holders who demanded that the crown commutate their lands.1986, Brian J. Young, In Its Corporate Capacity: The Seminary of Montreal as a Business Institution 1816-1876., →ISBN, page 52:
6

To transform, especially into a reversed or opposite form.

  • Writers change the URIs as they compose because writers commutate and manipulate language to create a variety of rhetorical experiences that can be read at once, as overlapping, or as separate.2007, Jeff Rice, The Rhetoric of Cool: Composition Studies and New Media, →ISBN, page 123:
Derived terms
anticommutating
Related terms
commutator

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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