Reverse
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ɹɪˈvÉ™Ës/
- Rhymes: -ÉœË(ɹ)s
Origin
From Anglo-Norman revers (noun, adjective), reversser (verb), Middle French revers (noun, adjectve), reverser (verb), and their source, Latin reversus (past participle), reversare (verb), from re- + versÄre.
Full definition of reverse
Adjective
reverse
- Opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction. from 14th c.We ate the meal in reverse order, starting with dessert and ending with the starter.The mirror showed us a reverse view of the scene.
- Pertaining to engines, vehicle movement etc. moving in a direction opposite to the usual direction. from 19th c.He selected reverse gear.
- (rail transport, of points) to be in the non-default position; to be set for the lesser-used route.
- Turned upside down; greatly disturbed.
- GowerHe found the sea diverse
With many a windy storm reverse. - (botany) Reversed.a reverse shell
Antonyms
- (rail transport) normal
Derived terms
Adverb
reverse
- (now rare) In a reverse way or direction; upside-down. from 14th c.
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVIII:they three smote hym at onys with their spearys, and with fors of themselff they smote Sir Launcelottis horse revers to the erthe.
- 1963, Donal Serrell Thomas, Points of Contact:The man was killed to feed his image fat
Within this pictured world that ran reverse,
Where miracles alone were ever plain.
Noun
reverse
(plural reverses)- The opposite of something. from 14th c.We believed the Chinese weren't ready for us. In fact, the reverse was true.
- The act of going backwards; a reversal. from 15th c.
- LambBy a reverse of fortune, Stephen becomes rich.
- A piece of misfortune; a setback. from 16th c.
- 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society 2010, p. 309:In fact, though the Russians did not yet know it, the British had met with a reverse.
- The tails side of a coin, or the side of a medal or badge that is opposite the obverse. from 17th c.
- The side of something facing away from a viewer, or from what is considered the front; the other side. from 18th c.
- The gear setting of an automobile that makes it travel backwards. from 19th c.
- A thrust in fencing made with a backward turn of the hand; a backhanded stroke.
- (surgery) A turn or fold made in bandaging, by which the direction of the bandage is changed.
Derived terms
Verb
- (intransitive) To turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction.
- (intransitive) To turn something inside out or upside down.
- Sir W. TempleA pyramid reversed may stand upon his point if balanced by admirable skill.
- (intransitive) To transpose the positions of two things.
- (transitive) To change totally; to alter to the opposite.
- ShakespeareReverse the doom of death.
- Sir Walter ScottShe reversed the conduct of the celebrated vicar of Bray.
- (obsolete, intransitive) To return, come back.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:Bene they all dead, and laide in dolefull herse?
Or doen they onely sleepe, and shall againe reuerse? - (obsolete, transitive) To turn away; to cause to depart.
- SpenserAnd that old dame said many an idle verse,
Out of her daughter's heart fond fancies to reverse. - (obsolete, transitive) To cause to return; to recall.
- SpenserAnd to his fresh remembrance did reverse
The ugly view of his deformed crimes. - (legal) To revoke a law, or to change a decision into its opposite.to reverse a judgment, sentence, or decree
- (ergative) To cause a mechanism or a vehicle to operate or move in the opposite direction to normal.
- (chemistry) To change the direction of a reaction such that the products become the reactants and vice-versa.
- (rail transport, transitive) To place a set of points in the reverse position
- (rail transport, intransitive, of points) to move from the normal position to the reverse position
- To overthrow; to subvert.
- Alexander PopeThese can divide, and these reverse, the state.
- RogersCustom ... reverses even the distinctions of good and evil.