REVERT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does revert mean? 

• REVERT (verb)
  The verb REVERT has 2 senses:

1. go back to a previous state

2. undergo reversion, as in a mutation

  Familiarity information: REVERT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REVERT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they revert    ... he / she / it reverts   
Past simple: reverted   
Past participle: reverted   
-ing form: reverting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Go back to a previous state

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

regress; retrovert; return; revert; turn back

Context example:

We reverted to the old rules

Hypernyms (to "revert" is one way to...):

change by reversal; reverse; turn (change to the contrary)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "revert"):

fall back; lapse; recidivate; regress; relapse; retrogress (go back to bad behavior)

resile (return to the original position or state after being stretched or compressed)

go back; recover; recuperate (regain a former condition after a financial loss)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

reversion (returning to a former state)

reversive (tending to be turned back)

reverting (a failure to maintain a higher state)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Undergo reversion, as in a mutation

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "revert" is one way to...):

mutate (undergo mutation)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

 Context examples 

I shall never, Master Copperfield, said Mrs. Micawber, revert to the period when Mr. Micawber was in difficulties, without thinking of you.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By three days post-infection, more than 90 percent of the viral material collected from the soft palate contained the reverted, long chain α2,6-binding form of virus.

(Researchers find role for soft palate in adaptation of transmissible influenza viruses, NIH)

Carbon-14 emits beta particles as it decays and reverts back to nitrogen.

(Carbon C-14, NCI Thesaurus)

He endeavoured to soothe me as a nurse does a child and reverted to my tale as the effects of delirium.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

GTP hydrolysis by the inherent GTPase reverts the alpha subunit to its inactive (heterotrimeric) form.

(Heterotrimeric G Protein Subunit Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

After many pauses and many trials of other subjects, Elizabeth could not help reverting once more to the first, and saying: I am astonished at his intimacy with Mr. Bingley!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I was about again to revert to the probability of a union between Mr. Rochester and the beautiful Blanche; but Adele came in, and the conversation was turned into another channel.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Edmund reverted to the harp, and was again very happy in the prospect of hearing her play.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Depudecin is a fungal metabolite that reverts the rounded phenotype of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts transformed with v-ras and v-src oncogenes to the flattened phenotype of the non-transformed parental cells.

(Depudecin, NCI Thesaurus)

Vaterite is not very stable in the Earth’s humid atmosphere as it often reverts to more common forms of calcium carbonate, such as calcite.

(Rare mineral discovered in plants for first time, University of Cambridge)