▪ I. alternate, a. and n.
(ælˈtɜːnət, ɒl-)
[ad. L. alternāt-us pa. pple. of alternā-re to do one thing after the other; f. altern-us ever the other, every second; f. alter the other of two, the second.]
A. adj. Done or changed by turns, coming each after one of the other kind.
1. Said of things of two kinds, so arranged that one of one kind always succeeds, and is in turn succeeded by, one of the other kind; occurring by turns; as alternate day and night, red stripes alternate with the blue ones, alternate layers of stone and (layers of) timber.
| 1513 More Rich. III, Wks. 1557, 70/2 Alternate proofe, as wel of prosperitie as aduers fortune. 1647 Crashaw Poems 157 Alternate shreds of light Sordidly shifting hands with shades and night. a 1704 T. Brown Sat. agst. Wom. Wks. 1730 I. 56 Alternate smiles and frowns, both insincere. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 12 The most opposite passions..mix with each other in the mind; alternate contempt and indignation; alternate laughter and tears; alternate scorn and horror. 1879 Froude Cæsar xix. 315 Walls, built of alternate layers of stone and timbers. |
2. a. Said of a series, or whole, constituted by such alternate members.
| 1650 Davenant Gondib., Pref., Nor doth alternate rhyme..make the sound less heroic. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. Proem. 39 Alternate change of climate has he known. 1807 Crabbe Village i. 9 No shepherds now, in smooth alternate verse, Their country's beauty or their nymph's rehearse. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 524 If the members of a whorl fall between the median lines of those of the next whorl above or below, the whorls are alternate. |
b. alternate generation (Biol.): genealogical succession by alternate processes; as in one generation by budding, or division, and in the next by sexual reproduction; and so on.
| 1858 Lewes Sea-side Stud. 293 The doctrine of Alternate generations has been persistently denied. 1861 Hulme Moquin-Tandon's Med. Zool. ii. i. 49 The existence of two modes of reproduction in the same species constitutes Alternate Generation. |
3. a. Said of things of the same kind taken in two numerical sets, so that one member of each set always succeeds one of the other. = Alternately taken; ― about; as, ‘He and I go on alternate days, or day about,’ i.e. his days and my days are alternate with each other.
| 1809 J. Barlow Columb. iv. 237 Alternate victors bid their gibbets rise. 1858 Gladstone Homer I. 134 Castor and Pollux..revisited the earth in some mysterious manner on alternate days. Mod. The minister and the people read alternate verses. |
b. alternate proportion: see quot.
| 1660 Barrow Euclid v. def. 12 Alternate Proportion is the comparing of antecedent to antecedent and consequent to consequent. 1827 Hutton Course Math. I. 324 Alternate proportion..As, if 1:2::3:6; then, by alternation, or permutation, it will be 1:3::2:6. |
4. Said (elliptically) of the members of either set as above constituted, taken by themselves apart from the other set, thus: of the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc., either 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, etc. or 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, are the alternate members = Alternate with others not taken in; every other, every second.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 107 Both these unhappy Soils the Swain forbears, And keeps a Sabbath of alternate Years. Mod. The drawing-master comes on alternate days. |
5. a. Said of things of the same kind occurring along the course of an axial line, first on one side and then on the other and so on; = Alternately placed. esp. in Bot. of leaves, and in Geom. of angles. (The latter are doubly alternate, being situated also on the alternate sides of the successive lines which make angles with the axial line.)
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. xxvii. 38 This worde alternate is..taken sometimes for a kind of situation in place. 1660 Barrow Euclid i. xxvii, If a right line falling upon two right lines make the alternate angles equal. 1770 Waring in Phil. Trans. LXI. 375 Some of the stalks..have their leaves singly at the joints, alternate. 1827 Hutton Course Math. I. 293 When a line intersects two parallel lines, it makes the alternate angles equal to each other. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. iv. §1. 119 Alternate leaves are those which stand singly, one after another, that is, with one leaf to each node or borne on one height of stem. |
b. Electr. alternate current = alternating current (see alternating ppl. a.).
| 1858 Wheatstone Brit. Pat. 1241 8 No contrivance is..required to invert or to stop out the alternate currents. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 781/2 Alternate currents of opposite character are generated in each set of bobbins, the polarity being changed at the moment of polar passage. 1878 Design & Work 23 Feb. 234/2 In each revolution..there will have been induced 16 alternate currents. |
6. Alternately performed by two agents, reciprocal.
| a 1716 South (J.), Mutual offices, and a generous strife in alternate acts of kindness. 1829 Nat. Philos. I. ii. xiii. §104. 53 (U.K.S.) These [motions] may be divided into continued and alternate, or reciprocating. |
† 7. Interchanged, exchanged for the other (of two). Obs. rare.
| 1590 Greene Arcadia (1616) 36 As if..Bacchus, forsaking his heauen-borne deitie, should delude our eies with the alternate form of his infancie. |
8. = alternative a. 3. U.S.
| 1961 in Webster. 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 109 Only the PDAE records [m̩], and this as an alternate end to four words. |
9. quasi-adv. One after the other, in turns, by turns.
| 1712 Pope Temp. Fame 486 Or wane and wax alternate like the moon. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. i. 202 Egyptian, Thracian gales alternate play. 1808 Scott Marm. ii. x, Massive arches broad and round That rose alternate row and row. |
10. Comb. alternate-leaved (see 5); alternate-pinnate (Bot.): having the pinnæ or leaflets of a compound leaf alternate upon the midrib or petiole.
| 1861 Pratt Flower. Pl. VI. 214 Alternate-leaved Spleen-wort. |
B. n. [the adj. used absol.]
1. That which alternates with anything else; a vicissitude, an alternative. Now chiefly U.S.
| 1718 Pope Iliad xviii. 117 'Tis not in Fate the alternate now to give. a 1733 North Examen iii. vi. ¶106. 498 The King having done all that was possible..about Alliances, and claimed the Alternate. 1915 L. M. Phillipps Form of Colour iv. 70 On the completion of Santa Sophia an alternate confronted the Byzantine architects. 1952 Times 27 Oct. 7/5 Their official reasons for proposing an extension of Gatwick were that it was required..as an ‘alternate’ to London Airport. 1962 J. Glenn in Into Orbit 37 In the interests of safety all the major systems had to be studded with alternates or stand-by components. |
2. One who is appointed to act in place of a delegate who is unable to be present; a substitute. U.S.
| 1848 N.Y. Weekly Tribune 26 Feb. 4/1 Resolved, That the Chair appoint a Committee..to report to this Convention thirty-six delegates to the National Convention; also an alternate to each delegate. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxix. 542 To every delegate there is added a person called his ‘alternate’,..to replace him in case he cannot be present..; if from any cause the delegate is absent, the alternate steps into his shoes. 1895 Denver Times 5 Mar. 2/7 Each precinct is entitled to delegates and alternates as follows. |
3. A person who alternates with another in the occupation, or performance of the duties, of an office.
Cf. F. alternat (used also in Eng. context), the arrangement according to which rotation of office is maintained among persons of equal rank, etc.
| 1898 Westm. Gaz. 21 Apr. 4/3 When sitting at our Board as an alternate in London for Mr. Rhodes. 1908 Ibid. 21 July 5/2 In 1903 he was appointed alternate to the Chief of the Admiralty Staff. |
▪ II. alternate, v.
(ˈæltəneɪt, ɔːl-)
[f. prec., or on analogy of vbs. so formed; formerly accented alˈter-nate.]
1. trans. To arrange, do, or perform (two sets of things) each after the other continuously; to do (a thing) in two ways alternately; to cause to occur or succeed in alternation.
| 1599 Sandys Europ. Spec. (1632) 239 Their Liturgy is intermedled much with singing..grave, alternated, and braunched with divers parts. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 657 Who in their course Melodious Hymns about the sovran Throne Alternate all night long. a 1711 Grew (J.), The most High God..alternates the disposition of good and evil. |
2. To interchange (one thing) by turns with, or to cause (a thing) to succeed and be succeeded by, another continuously.
| 1850 Merivale Rom. Emp. IV. xxxviii. 317 The Envoys of Maroboduus were instructed to alternate a tone of respect and deference..with the boldest assertions of equality. 1859 Mrs. Schimmelpenninck Princ. Beauty i. xi. 39 Always alternating an Active by a Passive style. |
† 3. To change the other way, to reverse. Obs. rare.
| 1595 Markham Sir R. Grinvile xliii, Yet may thy power alternat heauens doome. |
4. intr. Of two or more things: To succeed each other by turns, in time or space.
| 1700 Dryden Pal. & Arc. iii. 882 Good after ill, and after pain, delight, Alternate, like the scenes of day and night. 1705 J. Philips Blenheim v. 339 (T.) Rage, shame and grief alternate in his breast. 1850 Lynch Theoph. Trin. ii. 23 Great souls in whom dark and bright alternated. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xiv. 1 The fortunes of parties alternate. |
5. intr. Of a whole: To consist of alternations, to vary in two directions by turns. Const. between.
| 1823 Lamb Elia (1860) 294 The scene [shall] only alternate between Bath and Bond Street. 1847 Disraeli Tancred iii. vii. (1871) 229 A land which alternates between plains of sand and dull ranges of monotonous hills. |
6. intr. Of one thing, or class of things: To come or appear in alternate order with another, in time or space.
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 47 Thus does famine of intelligence alternate with waste. 1858 Lewes Sea-side Stud. 87 Alternating with these are placed others of similar structure. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. 76 Those periods of decay..alternate with periods of regeneration. |