▪ I. reˈconvert, n.
[re- 5 a.]
One converted a second time.
| 1843 Gladstone Glean. (1879) V. 34 She has made (we refer to the latter part of the sixteenth century) converts and reconverts by thousands—nay, even by millions. |
▪ II. reconvert, v.
(riːkənˈvɜːt)
[re- 5 a. Cf. med.L. reconvertĕre (Du Cange), F. reconvertir (1591 in Godef.), It. reconvertire (Florio).]
1. trans. To convert back to a previous state: a. persons, spec. in religious sense.
| 1611 Cotgr., Reconvertir, to reconuert. 1649 Alcoran 278 We..sent him to preach to more then an hundred thousand persons, that we reconverted. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. iv. Wks. (1847) 520/2 About this time the East Saxons, who..had..renounc'd the Faith, were by the means of Oswi thus reconverted. 1737 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 50, I myself having known many Papists..reconverted. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. x. II. 647 In December ambition had converted him into a rebel. In January disappointment reconverted him into a royalist. 1882 Saintsbury Short Hist. Fr. Lit. iii. vii, He soon distinguished himself by reconverting a considerable number of persons to the Roman form of faith. |
b. things.
| 1662 Petty Taxes 17 Money; which being paid to the King, is again reconverted into corn. 1762 Mills System Pract. Husb. I. 160 There will be no danger of it's re-converting the soil into a bog. 1783 Priestley in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 427 The result was such as to afford a strong presumption that the air was re-converted into water. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. iv. xx. (ed. 2) 474 The islanders in Jersey replaced much of their arable land by orchards. These have since..been re-converted. |
2. Logic. To transpose again the subject and predicate of (a proposition). Cf. convert v. 4 b.
| 1864 Bowen Logic vi. 161 It is evident that, by reconverting the Converse, we ought to regain the Convertend. Ibid., This is reconverted simply into ‘Some men are mortals’. |
3. Law. To change back again into something of equivalent value. Cf. convert v. 15.
| 1884 Sir E. E. Kay in Law Times Rep. L. 56/2 It does not decide that if the court or a trustee sell more than is necessary there is any equity to reconvert the surplus for the benefit of the heir-at-law. |
Hence reconˈverted ppl. a.; reconˈvertible a., capable of being reconverted.
| 1738 Wesley Ps. lxxx. xxiii, King of a re-converted Land. 1886 American XII. 251 That these waves are reconvertible into heat. |