Library / English Dictionary

INVERT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Turn inside out or upside down

Synonyms:

invert; reverse; turn back

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

inversion (the act of turning inside out)

inversion (turning upside down; setting on end)

inverter (an electrical converter that converts direct current into alternating current)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Reverse the position, order, relation, or condition of

Example:

when forming a question, invert the subject and the verb

Synonyms:

invert; reverse

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

reorder (assign a new order to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make an inversion (in a musical composition)

Example:

here the theme is inverted

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Domain category:

music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

A short DNA sequence found in prokaryotic and some eukaryotic genomes that encodes proteins involved in DNA transposition and is usually flanked by inverted repeats.

(DNA Insertion Elements, NCI Thesaurus)

A type of chromosome rearrangement in which a segment has been turned through 180 degrees (inverted), and inserted back into its original location on the chromosome.

(Chromosomal Inversion, NCI Thesaurus)

You have only knowledge enough of the language to translate at sight these inverted, transposed, curtailed Italian lines, into clear, comprehensible, elegant English.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Still more pleased was he when, inverting a leathern pouch over the end of the reed, and so filling it with the gas, he was able to send it soaring up into the air.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By crossing and lashing the ends of two spars, and then elevating them in the air like an inverted “V,” I could get a point above the deck to which to make fast my hoisting tackle.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

If I had not guessed this, on the way to the coffee-house, I could hardly have failed to know what was the matter when I followed him into an upstairs room, and found Miss Murdstone there, supported by a background of sideboard, on which were several inverted tumblers sustaining lemons, and two of those extraordinary boxes, all corners and flutings, for sticking knives and forks in, which, happily for mankind, are now obsolete.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At such moments, starting from a windward roll, I would go flying through the air with dizzying swiftness, as though I clung to the end of a huge, inverted pendulum, the arc of which, between the greater rolls, must have been seventy feet or more.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)