reach 
They [consequences] reach only to those of their poster- 
ity who abet their forefathers' crime, and continue in 
their infidelity. Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, II. v. 
There are the \\\&e-reachiny views of fruitful valleys 
and of empurpled hill-sides. 
D. O. Mitchell, Wet Days at Edgewood, Pliny's Country 
[Places. 
In the distance . . . the mountains reach away in faint 
and fainter shades of purple and brown. 
Harper's Weekly, Jan. 19, 1889. 
2. To extend in amount or capacity; rise in 
quantity or number ; amount ; suffice : with to 
or unto. 
What may the king's whole battle [army] reach unto ? 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iv. 1. 129. 
Every one was to pay his part according to his propor- 
tion towards y purchass, & all other debts, what y^ 1 proftte 
of y trade would not reach too. 
Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, p. 215. 
A very exceptional grant was made, two fifteenths and 
tenths first, and then another sum of the same amount, 
reaching, according to Lord Bacon, to 120,000. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 3UO. 
3. To make a stretch to or toward something, 
as with the hand or by exertion ; stretch for- 
ward or onward ; make a straining effort : as, 
to reach out for an apple ; to reach at or after 
gain. 
Ful semely after hire mete she raughte. 
Chaucer, Uen. Prol. to C. T., L 136. 
He slytte the shelde as fer as that he raught, and the 
kynge Ban sente hym a stroke with Corsheuse, his goode 
swerde. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 344. 
One may reach deep enough, and yet 
Find little. Shak., T. of A., UL 4. 15. 
Oft the first that (without right or reason) 
Attempt Rebellion and do practice Treason, 
And so at length are iustly tumbled down 
Beneath the foot, that raught aboue the Crown. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 1. 
Why was I not contented? Wherefore reach 
At things which, but for thee, Latmian ! 
Had been my dreary death? Keats, Endymion, iii. 
4. To attain ; arrive ; get, as to a point, desti- 
nation, or aim. 
Festus, . . . whose ears were unacquainted with such 
matter, heard him [the apostle Paul], but could not reach 
unto that whereof he spake. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, iii. 8. 
The wind being very great at S. W., he could reach no 
farther than Cape Ann harbour that night. 
Winffirop, Hist. New England, I. 116. 
5f. To turn ; start forth. 
Up he sterte, and on his weye he raughte, 
Til she agayn hym by the lappe caughte. 
Chaucer, Troilus, ii. 447. 
6. Naut., to sail with the wind free. 
reach 1 (rech), i. [Xreac/i 1 , .] 1. A continuous 
stretch or course; an uninterrupted line of 
extension or continuity: as, a reach of level 
ground; an inland reach of the sea; a reach of 
a river (a straight course between bends); a 
reach of a canal (the part between locks, hav- 
ing a uniform level). 
And, on the left hand, hell 
With long reach interposed. Milton, P. L., x. 322. 
The silver Phea's glittering rills they lost, 
And skimm'd along by Elis' sacred coast, 
Then cautious through the rocky reaches wind. 
And, turning sudden, shun the death designed. 
Pope, Odyssey, xv. 
We walk'd 
Beside the river's wooded reach. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, Ixxi. 
2. Limit or scope of stretch or extension; 
power of reaching by the outstretched hand or 
any other agency; the act of or capacity for 
reaching : as, the reach of the arm ; to be within 
one's reach, or within the reach of the law. 
All others have a dependent being, and within the reach 
of destruction. Sir T. Browne, Urn-burial, v. 
Out of the reach of danger, he [Junius] has been bold ; 
out of the reach of shame, he has been confident 
Johnson, Thoughts on late Trans, in the Falkland Islands. 
Poor the reach, 
The undisguised extent, of mortal sway 1 
Wordsworth, Canute and Alfred, on the Sea-Shore. 
The study of spectra has opened a new world of research, 
and added some such reach to our physics and chemistry 
as the telescope brought to vision. 
C. A. Young, The Sun, p. 67. 
Most of the villages of Egypt are situated upon emi- 
nences of rubbish, which rise a few feet above the reach 
of the inundation. K. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, I. 24. 
3. Effective extent or scope; range of capa- 
city or ability ; power of accomplishment ; 
grasp; penetration; comprehension. 
Men moie audacious and precipitant then of solid and 
deep reach. Milton, Reformation in Eng., ii. 
Be sure yourself and your own reach to know, 
How far your genius, taste, and learning go. 
Pope, Essay on Criticism, 1. 153. 
Groves that inspire the Nightingale to trill 
And modulate, with subtle reach of skill 
Elsewhere unmatched, her ever-varying lay. 
Wordsworth, Sonnets, iii. 6. 
4081 
His [Wordsworth's] mind had not that reach and ele- 
mental movement of Milton's. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 241. 
4. A reaching out for something; forecast in 
aim or purpose ; a scheme of effort for some end. 
I have brains 
That beat above your reaches. 
Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1. 
The Duke of Parma had particular reaches and ends of 
his own underhand to cross the design. Bacon. 
Others 
Think heaven a world too high for our low reaches. 
Chapman, Caesar and Pompey, iv. 3. 
5. The pole connecting the rear axle to the 
bolster of a wagon or other vehicle; a cou- 
pling-pole. See cut under hound, 7. 6. Naut., 
the distance sailed between tacks: same as 
board, 13 (c). 7. An extended point of land; 
a promontory. [Local, U. S.] Head reach, the 
distance to windward traversed by a vessel while tacking. 
reach 2 (rech), v. A variant of retell. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
reachable (re'cha-bl), a. [< reach 1 + -able.'} 
Capable of being reached ; within reach, 
reacher (re'cher), . 1. One who or that which 
reaches, or is capable of or serves for reach- 
ing. 
Hold in your rapier; for, though I have not a long reach- 
er, I have a short hitter. 
Greene and Lodge, Looking Glass for Lond. and Eng. 
He . . . spoke to Jennings, the reacher of the records, 
that he should let him have any record. 
Life of A. Wood, p. 205. 
2t. An exaggeration ; a "stretcher." [Slang.] 
I can hardly believe that reacher, which another writeth 
of him, that " with the palms of his hands he could touch 
his knees, though he stood upright." 
Fuller, Worthies, Monmouthshire, II. 435. 
reaching-post (re'ching-post), . In rope-mak- 
ing, a post fixed in the ground at the lower end 
of a rope-walk. 
reachless (rech'les), a. [< reach 1 + -less.~\ Be- 
yond reach ; unattainable ; lofty. 
To raise her silent and inglorious name 
Unto a reachlesse pitch of praises bight. 
Bp. Hall, A Defiance to Envy. 
reach-me-down (rech'me-doun'), a. [< reach 1 , 
v., + me, indirect object, + down 1 , adv. Cf. 
pick-me-up.] Beady-made. [Colloq., Eng.] 
You know in the Palais Koyal they hang out the most 
splendid reach-me down dressing gowns, waistcoats, and 
so forth. Thackeray, Philip, xxiv. 
reacquitet (re-a-kwlf), v. t. [< re- + acquite.] 
To pay back; give a return to or for; requite. 
You shall assuredly find the gentleman very honest and 
thankful, and me ready to re-acquite your courtesy and fa- 
vour to him so shewn, in that I possibly may. 
G. Harvey, Four Letters, i. 
react (re-akf), v. [< re- + act, v. Cf. F. reagir, 
react.]' I. trans. To act or perform anew; re- 
enact: as, to react a play. 
II. intrans. 1. To exert, as a thing acted 
upon, an opposite action upon the agent. 
If fire doth heate water, the water reacteth againe . . . 
upon the fire and cooleth it. 
Sir K. Digby, Treatise of Bodies (1644), xvi. 
Great minds do indeed re-act on the society which has 
made them what they are ; but they only pay with inter- 
est what they have received. Macaulay, Dryden. 
Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a thread- 
ball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains in the 
thrower's bag. Einerson, Compensation. 
2. To act, after being acted upon, in a manner 
directly opposed to the first action, and in in- 
creased measure. Thus, when the body has been 
chilled by a bath, it is said to react in becoming warmer 
than before ; and, in like manner, when misfortune stimu- 
lates the mind to greater efforts, the mind is said to react. 
S. To act mutually or reciprocally upon each 
other, as two or more chemical agents. 
reaction (re-ak'shon), n. [= F. reaction = Sp. 
reaccion = Pg. reacq&o = It. reazione; as re- + 
action.'] 1. Any action in resistance or re- 
sponse to the influence of another action or 
power; reflexive action or operation; an op- 
posed impulse or impression. 
Of reaction in locall motion, that each agent must suffer 
in acting and act in suffering. 
Sir K. Digby, Treatise of Bodies (1644), xvi. 
Sense being nothing else, as some conceit, but motion, 
or rather re-action of a body pressed upon by another 
body. Dr. H. More, Immortal, of Soul (1662), i. 12. 
Attack is the re-action ; I never think I have hit hard, 
unless it re-bounds. Johnson, in Boswell, an. 1775. 
Every trespass produces a reaction, partly general and 
partly special a reaction which is extreme in proportion 
as the trespass is great. H. Spencer, Social Statics, p. 484. 
2. In dynamics, a force called into being along 
with another force, being equal and opposite 
to it. All forces exist in pairs ; and it is a fundamental 
law (Newton's third law of motion) in mechanics that 
"action and reaction are always equal and contrary," or 
read 
that the mutual actions of two bodies are always equal 
and exerted in opposite directions. This law was an- 
nounced, in the form that the quantity of motion is pre- 
served in all percussion, simultaneously in 1C09 by Chris- 
tian Huygens, John Wallis, and Sir Christopher Wren, 
but was experimentally proved by Wallis only. 
3. Action contrary to a previous influence, gen- 
erally greater than the first effect; in politics, 
a tendency to revert from a more to a less ad- 
vanced policy, or the contrary. 
The violent reaction which had laid the Whig party 
prostrate was followed by a still more violent reaction in 
the opposite direction. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. 
4. In chem., the mutual or reciprocal action of 
chemical agents upon each other Achilles ten- 
don reaction, the contraction of the calf-muscles evoked 
by tapping the Achilles tendon. Amphigenous, am- 
photeric, etc., reaction. See the adjectives. Color- 
reaction, in chem., a reaction which causes a character- 
istic development or change of color: used in testing. 
Diazo-reactlon. Same as Ehrlich's reaction. Ehrlich's 
reaction, a reaction in the urine of typhoid and other 
patients in which it strikes a deep dark red on being 
treated with a mixture containing sodium nitrite, sul- 
phanilic acid, and hydrochloric acid, and alkalinized with 
ammonia. Also called Ehrlich's test, and diazo-reaclion. 
Law of action and reaction. See action. Paradox- 
ical reaction. See paradoxical. Reaction of degen- 
eration, a modification of the normal reaction of nerve 
and muscle to electric stimuli, observable in cases where 
the lesion lies in the motor nerve or its immediate central 
or peripheral terminations. The complete form presents 
(a) total loss of Irritability of the nerve below the lesion ; 
(6) on direct stimulation of the muscle, (1) loss of irrita- 
bility for very brief currents, such as induction-shocks; 
(2) retention and even increase of Irritability for making 
and breaking of currents of longer duration (this galvanic 
irritability also becomes lost in the terminal stages of the 
severest forms) ; (3) increase of irritability for making cur- 
rents at the anode as compared with the cathode, so that 
the anode closing contraction may exceed the cathode 
closing contraction ; (4) a sluggishness of contraction and 
relaxation. 
reactionary (re-ak'shon-a-ri), a. and . [= F. 
reactionna ire ; ' as reaction + -ary.~] I. a. 1. 
Of or pertaining to reaction in general ; con- 
sisting of or characterized by reflex or recipro- 
cal action ; reactive. 
The reactionary excitement that gave her a proud self- 
mastery had not subsided. 
George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, vi. 10. 
Specifically 2. Of or pertaining to political 
reaction; favoring reaction: as, reactionary 
principles or movements. 
The poverty and suffering of millions of the working 
e in 
classes came in aid of the reactionary party and the more 
egotistical line of policy. 
W. K. Greg, Misc. Essays, 1st ser., p. 33. 
II. '*! pl> reactionaries (-riz). A promoter 
of reaction ; specifically, one who attempts to 
check, undo, or reverse political action. 
The reactionaries and conservatives of Sweden and 
there are many of them in this old country are afraid that 
free Norway will lead Sweden into the path of reforms. 
Harper's Mag., LXXVIII. 804. 
reactionist (re-ak'shon-ist), . [< reaction + 
-ist.] A favorer of reaction; an advocate of old 
methods or principles ; a reactionary. 
Those who are not afraid of the nickname of reactionists 
will be slow to condemn her [Austria] for the maintenance 
of a principle on which she has grown into power. 
Stubbt, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 239. 
reaction-period (re-ak'shon-pe"ri-od), . Same 
as reaction-time. 
reaction-time (re-ak'shon-tim), . The time 
between the application of a stimulus and some 
reaction, as when a signal is rendered on the 
perception of some sensation. The reduced reaction- 
time is the part of this which is consumed in perception 
and willing, as distinct from what is consumed in trans- 
mission and in the period of muscular latency. 
reaction-wheel (re-ak'shon-hwel), n. See tur- 
bine. 
reactive (re-ak'tiv), a. [= F. reacitf; as re- 
act + -ive.]' Pertaining to or causing reaction ; 
acting reflexively or reciprocally; resulting 
from reflex action. 
Ye fish, assume a voice, with praises fill 
The hollow rock and loud reactire hill. 
Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, vii. 
Knowledge of Sanscrit . . . will be kept alive by the 
reactive influence of Germany and England. 
Maine, Village Communities, p. 25. 
This equilibration between new outer forces and reac- 
tive inner forces, which is thus directly produced in indi- 
viduals. H. Spencer, Prin. of Biol., 296. 
reactively (re-ak'tiv-li), adc. By reaction. 
reactiveness (rf-ak'tiv-nes), ii. The quality 
of being reactive. 
reactivity (re-ak-tiv'i-ti), n. [< reactive + -ity.} 
The state of being reactive; the process or 
course of reaction, as from a diseased condition. 
The occurrence of colour, therefore, is more frequently 
than not concomitant with a high degree of reactivity. 
Satnre, XXXVII. 503. 
read 1 (red), c.; pret. and pp. read (red), ppr. 
readitHj. [Early mod. E. also reed, reede, rede; < 
