reversed, ppl. a.
(rɪˈvɜːst)
[f. reverse v.1 + -ed1.]
a. Turned backwards, or placed the contrary way; inverted, etc.
| a 1400 Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. I. 281 Heore reuersede gydes on hem are streyt drawe. |
| 1594 I. G. Grassi's Art Def. I i b, To discharge a thrust at the enimies thigh, the which withstandeth the fall of the reuersed blowe. 1610 J. Guillim Her. i. viii, Reuersed Coats for Treason. 1615 Sandys Trav. 34 The darts not lighting in iest on their naked necks, and reuersed faces. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. ii. 52 By the side thereof must be placed the Reversed six Northern Signs. 1766 Complete Farmer s.v. Madder 5 H 4/1 Underneath the floor should be a reversed pyramid, somewhat obtuse at bottom. 1799 Naval Chron. I. 342 She hoisted a reversed ensign as a signal of distress. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 242 Footguards with reversed arms escorted the hearse. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geogr. iv. 188 The southwest monsoons..are reversed Trades. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 95 Plates that are liable to fog..as a rule give reversed images with comparatively short exposures. |
b. In various special uses: (see
quots.).
reversed fault = reverse fault s.v. reverse a.
and adv. 1 d;
reversed-polarity Grammar, used attributively of a complex interrogative construction in which positive and negative appear in each of two parts (
e.g. this is good,
isn't it?, and
this isn't any good,
is it?).
| 1682 Gibbon Ess. Blason 141 In English he calls it a *Cross reversed, which Leigh terms Sarcelé. |
| 1876 A. H. Green Phys. Geol. ix. §4. 366 *Reversed fault, when the hade or slope is not towards the down-throw side. 1882 A. H. Green Geol. xi. 492 The hade or slope is almost always towards the down-throw side: exceptions to this rule are called ‘reversed faults’. 1929 M. H. Haddock Disrupted Strata iii. 36 In the common type of fault,..the striking angle θ will give a normal fault when obtuse and backthrust is present, or when acute and forethrust is present; the reversal of these remarks holds for reversed faults on the same fault plane. 1969 Bennison & Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles x. 251 The Dent Line, a complex structure which has the effect of a reversed fault. |
| 1957 D. L. Bolinger in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxviii. 113 The speaker courteously anticipates a possibly negative answer. This is perhaps related to the original sense of *reversed-polarity conduciveness. 1975 Language LI. 26 What is the relation between constant polarity tags and reversed-polarity tags?.. The tags below both have reversed polarity:..a. Caterpillars have legs, don't they? b. Caterpillars don't have legs, do they? |
| 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. II. 133 An old-fashioned English conchologist's delight in a *reversed shell. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 108 When the spire of a shell turns in a direction opposite to what is normal, it is said to be ‘reversed’. |
| 1886 Paul's Fish Culture Dec. 120 A specimen of what is known as the ‘*reversed sole’, one with the left side brown and the right side white. |
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v. Talon, The Talon consists of two Portions of a Circle, one without, and the other within; and when the Concave Part is uppermost, it is called *Reversed Talon. |
| 1847 Freeman in Ecclesiologist VIII. 37 *Reversed Tracery, in which the piercings seem to hang down from the top towards the centre. |
| 1822 Hortus Anglicus II. 271 *Reversed or Salamanca Trefoil. Heads of flowers roundish; flowers reversed. |
Hence
reˈversedly adv.| 1777 R. Lowth Life of William of Wykeham (ed. 3) ix. 286 Over the direction, which now stands among the notes, intermixed reversedly with them, [he] noted from Dr. London's mouth the account, which he had to communicate. 1798 in Cockburn Life Jeffrey (1852) II. xviii, Dr. Thomas Brown and J― propose to travel in your track (only reversedly) through Cumberland. |