backward(OPPOSITE DIRECTION)
 the reverse side
the back of something:
On the reverse side of the coin will be a portrait of the Queen.
Last month we discussed analogue to digital conversion and the reverse process.
Blood was now flowing in a reverse direction in order to nourish the starved heart muscle.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Opposites
antinome
antithesis
antithetical
antonymous
anything
countervailing force
diametric
diametrical
dichotomist
dichotomous
exactly
extreme
flip side
opposite
or otherwiseidiom
otherwise
polar
polarity
pole
poles apartidiom

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Backwards, sideways and back and forth

reverse | American Dictionary

reverse
verb[ I/T ]
us/rɪˈvɜrs/
to cause something to go in the opposite direction, order, or position:
[ T ]The group is trying to reverse the trend toward developing the wetlands.

reverse

adjective[ not gradable ]us/rɪˈvɜrs/
Repeat the steps in reverse order to shut the system off.
reverse
noun[ C/U ]
us/rɪˈvɜrs/
the opposite direction, order, or position:
[ U ]A car came down the street in reverse.
A reverse is also a defeat or failure:
[ C ]He suffered a series of financial reverses in the 1980s.

reverse | Business English

reverse
verb
uk /rɪˈvɜːs/us
[ T ]
to change a decision, plan, etc. so that it becomes the opposite of what it was before:
Management have reversed their decision on the matter.
[ I or T ]
to stop things happening, or to stop happening, in a particular way:
reverse a process/trendWe have to do something to reverse the trend of people moving away to seek work.
The struggling retailer has slashed prices in an attempt to reverse the decline in sales.
The trend is expected to reverse next year.
[ T ]
to start to behave or to do things in a way that is the opposite of what happened before:
The upward trend in prices may soon reverse course.
Customer feedback forced them to reverse direction.
[ T ] LAW
to change a legal decision in a court of law:
The court of appeal reversed the verdict in June.
 reverse (the) chargesUK(UScall collect)
COMMUNICATIONS
to make a phone call that is paid for by the person who receives it:
Call me from the airport and reverse the charges.
reverse
noun[ C ]
uk /rɪˈvɜːs/us
formal
a problem or failure that makes it more difficult for a person or organization to be successful:
The company suffered a reverse on the trading market.
(alsothe reverse)
the opposite of something:
The director assured us the company was doing well, but it turned out that the reverse was true.
the reverse of sthHer approach to marketing is the reverse of what we have done so far.
the other side of a piece of paper, etc.:
Write your account details on the reverse of the cheque.
 be in reverse/go into reverse
FINANCE
if something relating to finance goes into reverse, it starts to lose value:
The shares were in reverse for a long time.
If we don't get any sales growth, profits will go into reverse.
reverse
adjective[ before noun ]
uk /rɪˈvɜːs/us
the opposite of what has just been mentioned:
Although intended to reassure shareholders, this strategy clearly had the reverse effect.
going in the opposite direction from what usually happens or what has happened before :
We reviewed all the figures in reverse chronological order.
used to describe the other side of a piece of paper, etc.:
She made a note on the reverse side of the last page.

Examples of reverse

reverse
In a separate session, the orientations of the gratings were reversed so that each eye viewed each orientation in a counterbalanced design.
To isolate the problem, assume that if satisfactory reasoning is not forthcoming, the decision can be reversed.
The gender switch produces humor, but it does not disrupt or reconfigure gender relations or hierarchies; instead, it temporarily reverses them.
The opposite direction was created by reversing the order.
However, this trend was reversed later : living with relatives became commonplace for 75 per cent of single old women.
To this should be added that the alienation expressed through modernist rupture cannot simply be reversed.
The effect of syllable length on tokens in onsets and in codas was reversed when we considered the effect of ordinal syllable position on deletion.
Simply by turning over the ideas, the conclusion can be reversed.
The values of these response categories were reversed for the positive affect items.
In less than two decades, the province reversed its diversified productive pattern and became specialised in sugar production.
In the following empirical analyses, however, the numerator and the denominator are reversed so that higher scores indicate increased party policy extremism.
Lexical transducers have been used extensively for morphological analysis, and in theory a finite-state transducer implementing an analyser can be reversed to produce a generator.
Interestingly, the relationship between having a child at home and political participation is reversed between those with a partner and those without.
Finally, identical results were obtained when the deactivation protocol order was reversed (right, bilateral, then left).
Such changes are not automatically reversed as the economy improves.
See all examples of reverse
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.