invert
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- (verb):
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪnˈvɜːt/
- (General American) enPR: ĭn-vərtʹ, IPA(key): /ɪnˈvɝt/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
Audio (Canada) (file)
- (noun):
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɪn.vət/
- (General American) enPR: ĭnʹvərt, IPA(key): /ˈɪn.vɚt/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪnvə(ɹ)t
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle French invertir.
Verb edit
invert (third-person singular simple present inverts, present participle inverting, simple past and past participle inverted)
- (transitive) To turn (something) upside down or inside out; to place in a contrary order or direction.
- to invert a cup, the order of words, rules of justice, etc.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
- That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears, / As if these organs had deceptious functions.
- 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 4:
- Seldom, alas! the power of logic reigns / With much ſufficiency in royal brains. / Such reaſ'ning falls like an inverted cone, / Wanting its proper baſe to ſtand upon.
- (transitive, music) To move (the root note of a chord) up or down an octave, resulting in a change in pitch.
- (chemistry, intransitive) To undergo inversion, as sugar.
- To divert; to convert to a wrong use.
- 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
- [H]e had miſgouerned the ſtate, inuerted his treaſures to his owne priuat […]
- (anatomy) To turn (the foot) inwards.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
turn upside down or inside out
|
move (the root note of a chord) up or down an octave
See also edit
Noun edit
invert (plural inverts)
- (obsolete, psychology) A homosexual, in terms of the sexual inversion theory.
- 1897, W. Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion, page 202:
- We can seldom, therefore, congratulate ourselves on the success of any "cure" of inversion. The success is unlikely to be either permanent or complete, in the case of a decided invert; and in the most successful cases we have simply put into the invert's hands a power of reproduction which it is undesirable he should possess.
- (architecture) An inverted arch (as in a sewer).
- The base of a tunnel on which the road or railway may be laid and used when construction is through unstable ground. It may be flat or form a continuous curve with the tunnel arch. [1]
- (civil engineering) The lowest point inside a pipe at a certain point.
- (civil engineering) An elevation of a pipe at a certain point along the pipe.
- A skateboarding trick where the skater grabs the board and plants a hand on the coping so as to balance upside-down on the lip of a ramp.
Translations edit
homosexual — see homosexual
architecture: inverted arch
|
engineering: lowest point inside pipe
engineering: elevation of pipe
Adjective edit
invert (not comparable)
- (chemistry) Subjected to the process of inversion; inverted; converted.
- invert sugar
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
invert (plural inverts)
- (zoology, informal) An invertebrate.
References edit
- ^ invert (in'‑vert) The floor or bottom of the internal cross section of a closed conduit, such as an aqueduct, tunnel, or drain - The term originally referred to the inverted arch used to form the bottom of a masonry‑lined sewer or tunnel (Jackson, 1997) Wilson, W.E., Moore, J.E., (2003) Glossary of Hydrology, Berlin: Springer