REVERSE

Definitions

1. 1. To turn back; to cause to face in a contrary direction; to cause to depart. And that old dame said many an idle verse, Out of her daughter's heart fond fancies to reverse. Spenser.
2. 2. To cause to return; to recall. [Obs.] And to his fresh remembrance did reverse The ugly view of his deformed crimes. Spenser.
3. 3. To change totally; to alter to the opposite. Reverse the doom of death. Shak. She reversed the conduct of the celebrated vicar of Bray. Sir W. Scott.
4. 4. To turn upside down; to invert. A pyramid reversed may stand upon his point if balanced by admirable skill. Sir W. Temple.
5. 5. Hence, to overthrow; to subvert. These can divide, and these reverse, the state. Pope. Custom . . . reverses even the distinctions of good and evil. Rogers.
6. 6. To overthrow by a contrary decision; to make void; to under or annual for error; as, to reverse a judgment, sentence, or decree. Reverse arms (Mil.), a position of a soldier in which the piece passes between the right elbow and the body at an angle of 45°, and is held as in the illustration. -- To reverse an engine or a machine, to cause it to perform its revolutions or action in the opposite direction.