reverse

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman revers (noun, adjective), reverser (verb), Middle French revers (noun, adjectve), reverser (verb), and their source, Latin reversus (perfect passive participle), reversō (verb), from re- + versō.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvəːs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

reverse (comparative more reverse, superlative most reverse)

1. 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.

2. Pertaining to engines, vehicle movement etc. moving in a direction opposite to the usual direction. [from 19th c.]

   He selected reverse gear.

3. (rail transport, of points) To be in the non-default position; to be set for the lesser-used route.
4. Turned upside down; greatly disturbed.
   • Gower

     He found the sea diverse / With many a windy storm reverse.

5. (botany) Reversed.

   a reverse shell

6. (genetics) In which cDNA synthetization is obtained from an RNA template.

• (rail transport): normal

reverse (comparative more reverse, superlative most reverse)

1. (now rare) In a reverse way or direction; upside-down. [from 14^thc.]
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Bk.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.

• See also Thesaurus:vice versa or Thesaurus:upside down

reverse (plural reverses)

1. The opposite of something. [from 14th c.]

   We believed the Chinese weren't ready for us. In fact, the reverse was true.

2. The act of going backwards; a reversal. [from 15th c.]
   • Lamb

     By a reverse of fortune, Stephen becomes rich.

3. 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.

4. The tails side of a coin, or the side of a medal or badge that is opposite the obverse. [from 17th c.]
5. The side of something facing away from a viewer, or from what is considered the front; the other side. [from 18th c.]
6. The gear setting of an automobile that makes it travel backwards. [from 19th c.]
7. A thrust in fencing made with a backward turn of the hand; a backhanded stroke.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

8. (surgery) A turn or fold made in bandaging, by which the direction of the bandage is changed.

reverse (third-person singular simple present reverses, present participle reversing, simple past and past participle reversed)

1. (intransitive) To turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction.
2. (intransitive) To turn something inside out or upside down.
   • Sir W. Temple

     A pyramid reversed may stand upon his point if balanced by admirable skill.

3. (intransitive) To transpose the positions of two things.
4. (transitive) To change totally; to alter to the opposite.
   • Shakespeare

     Reverse the doom of death.

   • Sir Walter Scott

     She reversed the conduct of the celebrated vicar of Bray.

5. (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?

6. (obsolete, transitive) To turn away; to cause to depart.
   • Spenser

     And that old dame said many an idle verse, / Out of her daughter's heart fond fancies to reverse.

7. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to return; to recall.
   • Spenser

     And to his fresh remembrance did reverse / The ugly view of his deformed crimes.

8. (law) To revoke a law, or to change a decision into its opposite.

   to reverse a judgment, sentence, or decree

9. (ergative) To cause a mechanism or a vehicle to operate or move in the opposite direction to normal.
10. (chemistry) To change the direction of a reaction such that the products become the reactants and vice-versa.
11. (rail transport, transitive) To place a set of points in the reverse position
12. (rail transport, intransitive, of points) to move from the normal position to the reverse position
13. To overthrow; to subvert.
    • Alexander Pope

      These can divide, and these reverse, the state.

    • Rogers

      Custom […] reverses even the distinctions of good and evil.

• (to turn something in the opposite): unreverse
• (rail transport): normalise / normalize (transitive and intransitive)

• Reserve, Reveres, reserve, reveres, severer, veerers

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.vɛʁs/

reverse

1. first-person singular present indicative of reverser
2. third-person singular present indicative of reverser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of reverser
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of reverser
5. second-person singular imperative of reverser

• réserve, réservé

reverse

1. vocative masculine singular of reversus

• reverse in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

reverse

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of reversar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of reversar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of reversar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of reversar.