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Commence   /kəmˈɛns/   Listen
verb
Commence  v. t.  To enter upon; to begin; to perform the first act of. "Many a wooer doth commence his suit." Note: 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.



Commence  v. i.  (past & past part. commenced; pres. part. commencing)  
1.
To have a beginning or origin; to originate; to start; to begin. "Here the anthem doth commence." "His heaven commences ere the world be past."
2.
To begin to be, or to act as. (Archaic) "We commence judges ourselves."
3.
To take a degree at a university. (Eng.) "I question whether the formality of commencing was used in that age."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Commence" Quotes from Famous Books



... Great River[141] into a labyrinth of tortuous channels, for twelve miles in breadth from shore to shore: this width gradually decreases as the stream flows on to Prescot, fifty miles below; a short distance beyond that town the rapids commence,[142] and thence to Montreal the navigation is interrupted for vessels of burden; boats, rafts, and small steamers, however, constantly descend these tumultuous waters, and not unfrequently are lost in the ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... every one, "that if I could once get my digestion all right, then the cough would stop of itself. The doctor said—Dr. Nixon, that is—that it was more than half the digestion any way. But just as soon as I eat anything—or if I over-eat a little—then that tickling in my throat begins, and then I commence coughing; and I'm back just where I was. It's the digestion. I oughtn't to have ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... o'clock in St. Petersburg), and remain for several minutes at their devotions, occasionally offering a candle to the Virgin or some saint. Now and then it must happen that a speculator for the rise and a speculator for the fall enter the chapel and commence their orisons at the same time. Probably they pray that they may not be ...
— Russia - As Seen and Described by Famous Writers • Various

... alike for the various notes; but names are given to the lines and spaces of the staff; and, alas! the names of these lines and spaces change continually with the change of key or pitch. For example: if we commence a scale with C, our do will be on the first added line below the staff, and its octave, do, on the third space counting from the lowest. If we commence a scale with G, our do will be on the second line from the bottom, and the octave on the first space above the staff; and so on for ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 • Various

... submitted with great deference, and without the least hesitation, to the Vice Principal; who replied in such a manner as to induce me immediately to ascend the staircase, and commence a reconnaissance among the books placed above the gallery. The result of twenty minutes examination was, if not absolutely of the most gratifying kind, at least sufficient to induce me to offer twenty louis d'or for some thirty ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three • Thomas Frognall Dibdin


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