Reverses

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To change the direction or position of something toward its opposite To shift a situation or condition to a contrary state The process of moving in a direction that undoes prior movements or actions
2. To cause an object or orientation to face the opposite way ; to cancel or overturn an earlier choice or plan ; to go backward or withdraw from a position
3. To flip or rotate in the reverse direction ; to invalidate or change a prior result ; to travel in a backward direction or move away

Etymology: "Reverses" is the third-person singular form of the verb "reverse," so it describes someone or something turning a thing back the other way. The verb descends from Latin "reversare," built from "re-" (back) and "vertere" (to turn), so the core idea is turning back on one's course. English took it through Anglo-Norman and Middle French, which is why the verb and the noun "reverse" arrived together along the same route, one as a doublet of the other. The verb shows its physical origins most clearly. Someone reverses a car by driving it backward, and a coat can be reversed by turning it inside out. The sense of exchanging positions or opinions grew out of the same image of a thing turned around. Because the verb was formed from "re-" and "versare," anyone who knows "versatile" or "convert" is already holding the same root.

Synonyms: inverts, turns back, undoes, counteracts, reverses

Antonyms: advances, progresses, continues, proceeds, moves forward