Debacle vs Reverse - What's the difference?
debacle | reverse |
An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
* 1952 , ,
* 1996 , Richard L. Canby, "SOF: An Alternative Perspective on Doctrine", in Schultz et al'' (eds), ''Roles And Missions of SOF In The Aftermath Of The Cold War ,
* 2002, Jacqueline West, South America, Central America and the Carribean 2002 , Routledge, ISBN 1-857431-21-9, page 68,
* 2007 , BP pipeline failure: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources , "Statement by Peter Van Tuyn",
(ecology) A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.
* 1836 , , How to Observe: Geology ,
* 1837 , John Lee Comstock, Outlines of Geology ,
* 1872, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution'',
Opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction.
Pertaining to engines, vehicle movement etc. moving in a direction opposite to the usual direction.
(rail transport, of points) to be in the non-default position; to be set for the lesser-used route.
Turned upside down; greatly disturbed.
* Gower
(botany) Reversed.
*, 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.
The opposite of something.
The act of going backwards; a reversal.
* Lamb
A piece of misfortune; a setback.
* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 309:
The tails side of a coin, or the side of a medal or badge that is opposite the obverse.
The side of something facing away from a viewer, or from what is considered the front; the other side.
The gear setting of an automobile that makes it travel backwards.
A thrust in fencing made with a backward turn of the hand; a backhanded stroke.
(surgery) A turn or fold made in bandaging, by which the direction of the bandage is changed.
To turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction.
To turn something inside out or upside down.
* Sir W. Temple
To transpose the positions of two things.
To change totally; to alter to the opposite.
* Shakespeare
* Sir Walter Scott
(obsolete) To return, come back.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.4:
(obsolete) To turn away; to cause to depart.
* Spenser
(obsolete) To cause to return; to recall.
* Spenser
(legal) To revoke a law, or to change a decision into its opposite.
(ergative) To cause a mechanism or a vehicle to operate or move in the opposite direction to normal.
(chemistry) To change the direction of a reaction such that the products become the reactants and vice-versa.
(rail transport) To place a set of points in the reverse position
(rail transport, intransitive, of points) to move from the normal position to the reverse position
To overthrow; to subvert.
* Alexander Pope
* Rogers
As verbs the difference between debacle and reverse
is that debacle is while reverse is .debacle
English
Alternative forms
* * (rare) * (rare)Noun
(en noun)- The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.
p. 188,
- The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia and lays the ground for a military debacle .
- The Falklands-Malvinas débâcle provided the opportunity to restructure the military High Command; Alfonsín removed anti-democratic senior officers and replaced them with more co-operative ones.
p. 46,
- The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea.
p. 69
p. 51
- For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually
p. 425,
- When this débâcle commences
Usage notes
* Although authorities say that the word is properly spelled with both accents their use tends to be variable, with either or both often dropped, particularly in non-technical writing. Its headword in the online Oxford English Dictionary has none.Synonyms
* (An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously) fiascoReferences
* 2005, Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-861057-2 * 1998, The Dorling Kindersley Illustrated Oxford Dictionary'', Dorling Kindersley Limited and Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-7513-1110-3, page 211 * 2006, Ed. Michael Allaby, A Dictionary of Ecology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860905-1 * 1999, Ed. Robert Allen, Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860947-7 * 1999, Ed. Jennifer Speake, The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-425-16995-2reverse
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- 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.
- He selected reverse gear.
- He found the sea diverse / With many a windy storm reverse .
- a reverse shell
Antonyms
* (rail transport) normalDerived terms
* reverse discriminationAdverb
(en adverb)Noun
(en noun)- We believed the Chinese weren't ready for us. In fact, the reverse was true.
- By a reverse of fortune, Stephen becomes rich.
- In fact, though the Russians did not yet know it, the British had met with a reverse .
- (Shakespeare)
Derived terms
* in reverseVerb
(revers)- A pyramid reversed may stand upon his point if balanced by admirable skill.
- Reverse the doom of death.
- She reversed the conduct of the celebrated vicar of Bray.
- Bene they all dead, and laide in dolefull herse? / Or doen they onely sleepe, and shall againe reuerse ?
- And that old dame said many an idle verse, / Out of her daughter's heart fond fancies to reverse .
- And to his fresh remembrance did reverse / The ugly view of his deformed crimes.
- to reverse a judgment, sentence, or decree
- These can divide, and these reverse , the state.
- Custom reverses even the distinctions of good and evil.