▪ I. reˈverting, vbl. n.
[f. revert v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb, in various senses.
| 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 34 After this somerlye reuerting..: for which cause this circle is called a tropike (or circle of reuerting and turning back). 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 85 The reuerting of a point (which also we terme a reuert). 1612 Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. ii, This Eagle..foretold of a reverting of the Crown, after the Britons, Saxons, and Normans, to the first again. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 192 To apply the Collateral Branches as near as possibly he can (without Violation and unnatural bending and reverting) to the Earth or Borders. |
▪ II. reˈverting, ppl. a.
[-ing2.]
That reverts or turns back.
| 1815 Shelley Alastor 395 Shall the reverting stress Of that resistless gulf embosom it? 1868 H. Law Beacons Bible (1869) 153 The reverting eye betrays the heart. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. 59 At the top of a long flight of squarely reverting stair. |