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Reverse vs Avoid - What's the difference?

reverse | avoid |

In transitive terms the difference between reverse and avoid

is that reverse is to change totally; to alter to the opposite while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.

As verbs the difference between reverse and avoid

is that reverse is to turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.

As an adjective reverse

is opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction.

As an adverb reverse

is in a reverse way or direction; upside-down.

As a noun reverse

is the opposite of something.

reverse

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction.
  • 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.
  • Pertaining to engines, vehicle movement etc. moving in a direction opposite to the usual direction.
  • He selected reverse gear.
  • (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
  • He found the sea diverse / With many a windy storm reverse .
  • (botany) Reversed.
  • a reverse shell

    Antonyms

    * (rail transport) normal

    Derived terms

    * reverse discrimination

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • *, 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.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The opposite of something.
  • We believed the Chinese weren't ready for us. In fact, the reverse was true.
  • The act of going backwards; a reversal.
  • * Lamb
  • By a reverse of fortune, Stephen becomes rich.
  • A piece of misfortune; a setback.
  • * 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 309:
  • In fact, though the Russians did not yet know it, the British had met with a reverse .
  • 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.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (surgery) A turn or fold made in bandaging, by which the direction of the bandage is changed.
  • Derived terms

    * in reverse

    Verb

    (revers)
  • To turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction.
  • To turn something inside out or upside down.
  • * Sir W. Temple
  • A pyramid reversed may stand upon his point if balanced by admirable skill.
  • To transpose the positions of two things.
  • To change totally; to alter to the opposite.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Reverse the doom of death.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • She reversed the conduct of the celebrated vicar of Bray.
  • (obsolete) To return, come back.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.4:
  • Bene they all dead, and laide in dolefull herse? / Or doen they onely sleepe, and shall againe reuerse ?
  • (obsolete) To turn away; to cause to depart.
  • * Spenser
  • And that old dame said many an idle verse, / Out of her daughter's heart fond fancies to reverse .
  • (obsolete) To cause to return; to recall.
  • * Spenser
  • And to his fresh remembrance did reverse / The ugly view of his deformed crimes.
  • (legal) To revoke a law, or to change a decision into its opposite.
  • to reverse a judgment, sentence, or decree
  • (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
  • These can divide, and these reverse , the state.
  • * Rogers
  • Custom reverses even the distinctions of good and evil.

    Derived terms

    * to reverse out * bootlegger reverse * reversal noun

    Antonyms

    * (rail transport) normalise / normalize (transitive and intransitive)

    Anagrams

    * * * English ergative verbs ----

    avoid

    English

    Verb

  • To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.
  • :I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
  • *1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:
  • *:The devyllsayde unto hym: all these will I geve the, iff thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Jesus unto hym. Avoyde Satan.
  • *Milton
  • *:What need a man forestall his date of grief, / And run to meet what he would most avoid ?
  • *Macaulay
  • *:He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= England 1-0 Ukraine , passage=England could have met world and European champions Spain but that eventuality was avoided by Sweden's 2-0 win against France, and Rooney's first goal in a major tournament since scoring twice in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon at Euro 2004.}}
  • (obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
  • :(Wyclif)
  • To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
  • *Spenser
  • *:How can these grants of the king's be avoided ?
  • (legal) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
  • :(Blackstone)
  • (obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
  • :(Sir Thomas Browne)
  • (obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
  • *:
  • *:Anone they encountred to gyders / and he with the reed shelde smote hym soo hard that he bare hym ouer to the erthe / There with anone came another Knyght of the castel / and he was smyten so sore that he auoyded his fadel
  • *Francis Bacon
  • *:Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room.
  • (obsolete) To get rid of.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
  • (obsolete) To become void or vacant.
  • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Derived terms

    * avoid like the plague