reversion 
atavism; specifically, in botany, the conversion 
of organs proper to the summit or center of the 
floral axis into those which belong lower down, 
as stamens into petals, etc. Also reversal. 
The simple brain of a microcephalous idiot, in as far as 
it resembles that of an ape, may in this sense be said to 
offer a case of reversion. Dannn, Descent of Man, 1. 117. 
(b) Return to the wild or feral state after do- 
mestication ; exhibition of feral or natural char- 
acters after these have been artificially modified 
or lost. 3. lnlaw:(a) The returning of prop- 
erty to the grantor or his heirs, after the 
granted estate or term therein is ended. 
The rights of Guy devolved upon his brother ; or rather 
Cyprus, for the reversion of which no arrangements had 
been made, fell to the lot of the possessor. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 170. 
Hence (b) The estate which remains in the 
grantor where he grants away an estate smaller 
than that which he has himself. (Digby.) (See 
estate, 5, and remainder. ) The term is also fre- 
quently, though improperly, used to include 
future estates in remainder, (c) In Scots law, 
a right of redeeming landed property which 
has been either mortgaged or adjudicated to 
secure the payment of a debt. In the former 
case the reversion is called conventional, in the 
latter case it is called legal. See legal. 4. A 
right or hope of future possession or enjoy- 
ment; succession. 
As were our England in reversion his, 
And he our subjects' next degree in hope. 
Shak., Rich. II., i. 4. 85. 
P. ten. My maid shall eat the relics. 
Lick. When you and your dogs have dined ! a sweet re- 
version. B. Jomon, Staple of News, ii. 1. 
To London, concerning the office of Latine Secretaiy to 
his Maty, a place of more honour and dignitie than profit, 
the revertion of which he had promised me. 
Evelyn, Diary, May 5, 1670. 
He knows . . . who got his pension rug, 
Or quickened a reversion by a drug. 
Pope, Satires of Donne, iv. 135. 
5f. That which reverts or returns; the re- 
mainder. 
The small reeertion of this great army which came home 
might be looked on by religious eyes as relics. Fuller. 
6. In annuities, a reversionary or deferred an- 
nuity. See annuity. 7- In music, same as 
retrograde imitation (which see, under retro- 
grade). 8. In client., a change by which phos- 
phates (notably such as are associated with oxid 
of iron and alumina) which have been made 
soluble in water by means of oil of vitriol, be- 
come again insoluble.- Metnod of reversion, a 
method of studying the properties of curves, especially 
conies, by means of points the reverse of one another. 
Principle of reversion, the principle that, when any 
material system in which the forces acting depend only on 
the positions of the particles is in motion, if at any in- 
stant the velocities of the particles are reversed, the pre- 
vious motion will be repeated in a reverse order. Rever- 
sion of series, the process of passing from an infinite 
series expressing the value of one variable quantity in 
ascending powers of another to a second infinite series ex- 
pressing the value of the second quantity in ascending 
powers _of the first. 
reversionary (re-ver'shon-a-ri), a. [< reversion 
+ -ary.~] 1. Pertaining to or involving a rever- 
sion ; enjoyable in succession, or after the de- 
termination of a particular estate. 
These money transactions these speculations in life 
and death these silent battles for reversionary spoil 
make brothers very loving towards each other in Vanity 
Fair. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xi. 
2. In biol., pertaining to or exhibiting rever- 
sion ; tending to revert : reversive ; atavic : as, 
reversionary characters ; a reversionary process. 
Reversionary annuity. See annuity. 
reversioner (re-ver'shon-er), . [< reversion 
+ -r a .] One who has a reversion, or who is 
entitled to lands or tenements after a particu- 
lar estate granted is determined: loosely ap- 
plied in a general sense to any person entitled 
to any future estate in real or personal property. 
Another statute of the same antiquity . . . protected 
estates for years from being destroyed by the reversioner. 
BlaclrstoM, Com., IV. xxxiii. 
reversis (re-ver'sis), n. [< OF. revertds, "re- 
versi, a kind of trump (played backward, and 
full of sport) which the duke of Savoy brought 
some ten years ago into France" (Cotgrave), < 
reverscr, reverse : see reverse."] An old French 
card game in which the player wins who takes 
the fewest tricks. 
reversive (re-ver'siv), a. [< reverse + -ive.] 1 . 
Causing or tending to cause reversal. [Rare.] 
It was rather hard on humanity, and rather reversive of 
Providence, that all this care and pains should be lavished 
on cats and dogs, while little morsels of flesh and blood 
ragged, hungry, and immortal, wandered up and down 
the streets. R. T. Cooke, Somebody's Neighbors p 47 
5138 
2. Reverting; tending toward reversion ; spe- 
cifically, in biol., returning or tending to return 
to an ancestral or original type ; reversionary ; 
atavic. 
There is considerable evidence tending to show that 
people who possess revertive characters are more common 
among those classes of society properly designated low. 
Amer. Anthropologist, I. 70. 
revestry 
The earliest principle is that at a man's death his goods 
rn-rrt to the commonwealth, or pass as the custom of the 
commonwealth ordains. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 142. 
7. In diem., to return from a soluble to an in- 
soluble condition: applied to a change which 
takes place in certain superphosphates. See 
n n-rsiiin, 8.-Reverting draft See drafti. 
reverse (re-ver'so), w. [< It.'reverso, riverso: revertt (re-vert' or re'vert), n. [< revert, v.] 
see reverse, n.] If. In fencing, same as reverse, 3. 1 One who or that which reverts ; colloquially, 
I would teach these nineteen the special rules, as your 
punto, your reverso, your stoccato, your imbroccato. your 
passada, your montanto, till they could all play very near 
or altogether as well as myself. 
B. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv. 5. 
2. In printing, any one of the left-hand pages 
in a book: the opposite of recto. 
reversor (re-ver'sor), n. [< reverse + -ori.] A 
linkwork for reversing a figure. 
one who is reconverted. 
An active promoter in making the East Saxons converts, 
or rather reverts, to the faith. . Fuller. 
2. In music, return; recurrence; antistrophe. 
Hath not musick her figures the same with rhetorick ? 
vv hat is a revert but her antistrophe ? Peaeham, Music. 
Compare introvert, 
3 - Th at which is reverted. 
. " [Rare.] 
revert (re-vert'), '. [< ME. reverlen, < OF. re- revertant (re-ver'tant), a. [< OF. revertant, < 
vertir = Pg. reverter = It. rivertere, < L. rever- L. reverten(t-)s, ppr. of revertere, return : see re- 
tere, rcvortere, also deponent reverti, rerorti, pp. vert.] In her. : (a) Flexed or reflexed that is, 
ret-ersus, revorsus, turn back, turn about, come b ellt in an S-curve. (6) Bent twice at a sharp 
back, return, < re-, back, + vertere, turn: see an gle, like a chevron and a half Issuantand 
verse. Cf. avert, advert, convert, invert, etc.] I. revertant. Seeitsuant. 
trans. 1. To turn about or back; reverse the re ,T e , rted ^ r? ;y , r ted )>^- a - * Reversed; turned 
position or direction of. 
Thane syr Priamous the prynce, in presens of lordes, 
Presezto his penowne, and pertly it hentes ; 
Revertede it redily, and a-waye rydys 
To the ryalle rowte of the rownde table. 
Morte Arthure (E. E. T. 8.), 1. 2919. 
The trembling stream . . . bolls 
Around the stone, or from the hollow'd bank 
Reverted plays. Thomson, Spring, 1. 405. 
back. 2. In her., same as revertant. 
reverter (re-ver'ter). n. 1. One who or that 
which reverts. 2. In law, re version. -Forme- 
don in the revertert. See/ormedon. 
revertible (re-ver'ti-bl), a. [< revert + -Me.'] 
Capable of reverting; subject to reversion. 
A female flef revertible to daughters. 
W. Coxe, House of Austria, xliv. 
revertive (re-ver'tiv), a. [< revert + -ire.} 
Turning back; retreating; retiring. 
The tide revertive, unattracted, leaves 
A yellow waste of idle sands behind. 
Thomson, To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton. 
With wild despair's reverted eye, 
Close, close behind, he marks the throne. 
Scott, The Wild Huntsman. 
Yet ever runs she with reverted face, 
And looks and listens for the boy behind. 
Coleridge, Time, Real and Imaginary, revertively (re-ver'tiv-li), adv. By way of re- 
2f. To alter to the contrary ; reverse. version. Imp'. Diet. 
Wretched her Subjects, gloomy sits the Queen revery, n. See rererie. 
Till happy Chance reverts the cruel Scene. 
Prior, Imit. of Passage in Moriffi Encomium of Erasmus. 
3. To cast back; turn to the past. [Rare.] 
Then, when you . . . chance to revert a look 
I'pon the price you gave for this sad thraldom, 
You'le feel your heart stab'd through with many a woe. 
Brome, Northern Lass, i. 7. 
To revert a series, in math. , to transform a series by re- 
version. See reversion of series, under reversion. 
II. intrans. 1. To turn back; face or look 
backward. 
What half Jannses are we, that cannot look forward 
with the same idolatry w ith which we for ever revert ! 
Lamb, Oxford in Vacation. 
2. To come back to a former place or position ; 
return. 
So that my arrows. 
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind. 
Would have reverted to my bow again. 
Shale., Hamlet, iv. 7. 23. 
Bid him [the goblin] labour, soon or late, 
To lay these ringlets lank and straight ; . . . 
Th' elastic fibre, . . . dipt, new force exerts, 
And in more vig'rous curls reverts. 
Congreve, An Impossible Thing. 
3. To return, as to a former habit, custom, or 
mode of thought or conduct. 
Finding himself out of straits, he will revert to his cus- 
toms. Bacon, Expense. 
The Christians at that time had reverted to the habit of 
wearing the white turban. 
revest (re-vest'), r. [< ME. revesten, < OF. re- 
vestir, ravestir, F. rMNr = Pr. revestir, rivestir 
= Sp. Pg. revestir = It. rivestire, < LL. revestire, 
clothe again, < L. re-, again, + vcstire, clothe: 
see rest. Doublet of revet*.] I. trans. If. To 
reclothe; cover again as with a garment. 
Right so as thlse holtes and thise hay is, 
That han in winter dede ben and drye, 
Revesten hem in greene, when that May is. 
Chaucer, Troilus, ill. 853. 
Awaked all, shall rise, and all reuest 
The flesh and bones that they at first possest. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas^ Weeks, i. 1. 
2t. To invest ; robe ; clothe, especially in the 
vestments of state or office. 
Throly belles thay rynge, and Requiem syngys, 
Dosae messes and matyns with mournande notes : 
Relygeous reeeste in theire riche copes, 
Pontyflcalles and prelates in precyouse wedys. 
Morte Arthure (E. E. T. S-X I. 4335. 
For the weale of the common wealth it is as necessarie 
that the Knight doe arme as the priest reuest himself c : 
for, as prayers doe remoue sinnes, cuen so doth armour 
defend from enimies. 
Guevara, Letters (tr. by Hellowes, 1577), p. 42. 
3. To reinvest; vest again with ownership or 
office : as, to revest a magistrate with authority. 
4. To take possession of again ; secure again 
as a possession or right. 
If a captured ship escapes from the captor, or is retaken, 
L 1 lU'l>'UI , 
E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, II. 341. O 'lj f rf the Wner ran80 " 18 her ' his ro P"rty is thereby n- 
lested. Kent, Commentaries, v. 
4. In biol., to go back to an earlier, former, or 
primitive type ; reproduce the characteristics 
of antecedent stages of development ; undergo 
reversion ; exhibit atavism. 
I may here refer to a statement often made by natural- 
istsnamely, that our domestic varieties, when run wild, 
gradually but invariably revert in character to their abo- 
riginal stocks. 
5. To go back in fhought or discourse, as to a 
former subject of consideration; recur. 
Permit me, in conclusion, gentlemen, to revert to the 
idea with which I commenced the marvellous progress 
of the west. Everett, Orations, I. 213. 
Each punishment of the extra-legal step 
To which the high-born preferably revert 
Is ever for some oversight, some slip 
I' the taking vengeance, not for vengeance' self. 
Browning. Ring and Book, II. 88. 
My fancy, ranging thro' and thro', 
To search a meaning for the song, 
Perforce will still revert to you. 
Tennyson, The Day-Dream, L'Euvoi. 
6. In law, to return to the donor, or to the for- 
mer proprietor or his heirs. 
If his tenant and patentee shall dispose of his gift with- 
out his kingly assent, the lands shall revert to the king. 
Bacon. 
Like others for our spoils shall we return ; 
But not that any one may them revest, 
For 'tis not just to have what one casts off. 
Longfellow, tr. of Dante's Inferno, xiii. 104. 
II. intrans. To take effect again, as a title; 
return to a former owner : as, the title or right 
revests in A after alienation. 
Darwin, Origin of Species, p. 28. revestiaryt (re-ves'ti-a-ri), . [= F. revestiairc, 
< ML. rei-estinrinm, an apartment in or adjoin- 
ing a church where the priests robed them- 
selves for divine worship, the sacristy, vestry, 
< LL. revestire, revest: see revest and vestiary. 
Cf. revestry.] The apartment in a church or 
temple in which the ecclesiastical vestments 
are kept. Compare rcxtry. 
The impious Jews ascribed all miracles to a name which 
was ingraved in the reveiHary of the temple. 
Caniden, Remains. 
"Nay." said the Abbot, "we will do more, and will in- 
stantly despatch a servant express to the keeper of our re- 
<; *tirif to send us such things as he may want, even this 
night." Scott, Monastery, xvi. 
revestryt (re-ves'tri), . [< ME. revestry, re- 
i-extrir, revextre, < OF. *revcsterie, revestiere, re- 
rrxiinirr.< ML. revestiurium, vestry: see rerm- 
tinnj. Cf. vestry.] Same as reves'tiary. 
