资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Commute \Com*mute"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Commuted}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Commuting}.] [L. commutare, -mutatum; com- + mutare
   to change. See {Mutation}.]
   To exchange; to put or substitute something else in place of,
   as a smaller penalty, obligation, or payment, for a greater,
   or a single thing for an aggregate; hence, to lessen; to
   diminish; as, to commute a sentence of death to one of
   imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges
   for fares.

         The sounds water and fire, being once annexed to those
         two elements, it was certainly more natural to call
         beings participating of the first ``watery'', and the
         last ``fiery'', than to commute the terms, and call
         them by the reverse.                     --J. Harris

         The utmost that could be obtained was that her sentence
         should be commuted from burning to beheading.
                                                  --Macaulay.