Opposite vs Reverse - What's the difference?
opposite | reverse |
Located directly across from something else, or from each other.
Facing in the other direction.
Of either of two complementary or mutually exclusive things.
Extremely different; inconsistent; contrary; repugnant; antagonistic.
* Dryden
* John Locke
Something opposite or contrary to another.
An opponent.
An antonym.
(mathematics) An additive inverse.
In an opposite position.
Facing, or across from.
:
*
*:It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
In a complementary role to.
:
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 adjectives the difference between opposite and reverse
is that opposite is located directly across from something else, or from each other while reverse is opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction.As nouns the difference between opposite and reverse
is that opposite is something opposite or contrary to another while reverse is the opposite of something.As adverbs the difference between opposite and reverse
is that opposite is in an opposite position while reverse is in a reverse way or direction; upside-down.As a preposition opposite
is facing, or across from.As a verb reverse is
to turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction.opposite
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (archaic)Adjective
(-)- She saw him walking on the opposite side of the road.
- They were moving in opposite directions.
- He has a lot of success with the opposite sex.
- Novels, by which the reader is misled into another sort of pieasure opposite to that which is designed in an epic poem.
- Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost opposite , significations.
Derived terms
* opposite sexNoun
(en noun)- "Up" is the opposite of "down".
Derived terms
* opposites attractAdverb
(-)- I was on my seat and she stood opposite .
Preposition
(English prepositions)See also
* appositeStatistics
* 1000 English basic words ----reverse
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.