Reverse vs Backward - What's the difference?
reverse | backward |
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
(of motion) Pertaining to the direction towards the back.
(of motion) Pertaining to the direction reverse of normal.
Reluctant or unable to advance.
* 1919 ,
* Don't be backward in suggesting story ideas to local media but always think of the wants, needs and desires of their readers when selling-in story ideas.[http://www.mortgagemagazine.com.au/detail_article.cfm?articleID=364]
Of a culture considered undeveloped or unsophisticated.
* Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda. [http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1851044]
Pertaining to a thought or value that is considered outdated.
* Replace the morbid, bankrupting, backward idea of superpower domination: Weapons dismantled. Global warming reversed. Perhaps, in time, overpopulation, poverty, starvation, ignorance and disease all resolved. Thus, moral determination combined with 21st Century science, ecology and social initiatives will make possible a resonant fulfillment of our American Revolution [http://www.counterpunch.org/bice01042003.html]
(cricket) On that part of the field behind the batsman's popping crease.
(cricket) Further behind the batsman's popping crease than something else.
(obsolete) Unwilling; averse; reluctant.
* Alexander Pope
Slow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning.
Late or behindhand.
(obsolete) Already past or gone; bygone.
* Byron
(of motion) In the direction towards the back; backwards
Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.
* John Locke
By way of reflection; reflexively.
From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin.
* Dryden
The state behind or past.
* Shakespeare
As adjectives the difference between reverse and backward
is that reverse is opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction while backward is pertaining to the direction towards the back.As adverbs the difference between reverse and backward
is that reverse is in a reverse way or direction; upside-down while backward is in the direction towards the back; backwards.As nouns the difference between reverse and backward
is that reverse is the opposite of something while backward is the state behind or past.As a verb reverse
is to turn something around such that it faces in the opposite direction.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.
Derived terms
* to reverse out * bootlegger reverse * reversal nounAntonyms
* (rail transport) normalise / normalize (transitive and intransitive)Anagrams
* * * English ergative verbs ----backward
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- They left without a backward glance.
- The occasional backward movement of planets is evidence they revolve around the sun.
- Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.
- For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.
- a backward child
- a backward season
- and flies unconscious o'er each backward year
Synonyms
* (in reverse direction) retrograde * (of an undeveloped culture) third world * backwards, fogyish, old-fashioned, antiquated, antediluvian, unprogressive, retrograde, outdated, parachronistic, out of dateAntonyms
* (of an undeveloped culture) forward * (of an outdated thought) progressiveAdverb
(en adverb)- to walk or ride backward'''; to throw the arms '''backward
- some reigns backward
- The work went backward .
Synonyms
* backwardsAntonyms
* forward, forwardsNoun
- In the dark backward and abysm of time.