reverse

To reverse is to go backwards, and most often it is a car doing it. Mirror, hand on the passenger seat, reverse slowly out of the drive and hope nobody is walking past.

Reverse also means turning something the other way round or undoing it: reverse a decision, reverse the order of the names, reverse the roles. Courts reverse judgments and doctors talk about reversing the damage. As a noun it is the gear, in put it in reverse; the opposite, in the reverse is true; and the back of a coin or a page. In reverse means backwards, and a reversal is the moment everything swings the other way. In Britain you reverse the charges on a phone call, which Americans call calling collect.

Phrases it lives in

• in reverse — backwards, or in the opposite order
• reverse the charges — to make a phone call that the person you are calling pays for