Definition of "invert"

invert¹

/ɪnˈvɜːt/

verb
third-person singular simple present inverts, present participle inverting, simple past and past participle inverted
1. (transitive) To turn (something) upside down or inside out; to place in a contrary order or direction.
  Quotations
  That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears, / As if these organs had deceptious functions.
  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, [Act V, scene ii]
  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.
  1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], page 4
2. (transitive, music) To move (the root note of a chord) up or down an octave, resulting in a change in pitch.
3. (chemistry, intransitive) To undergo inversion, as sugar.
4. To divert; to convert to a wrong use.
  Quotations
  [H]e had miſgouerned the ſtate, inuerted his treaſures to his owne priuat […]
  1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip
5. (anatomy) To turn (the foot) inwards.
noun
plural inverts
1. (obsolete, psychology) A homosexual, in terms of the sexual inversion theory.
  Quotations
  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.
  1897, W. Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion, page 202
2. (architecture) An inverted arch (as in a sewer).
3. 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.
4. (civil engineering) The lowest point inside a pipe at a certain point.
5. (civil engineering) An elevation of a pipe at a certain point along the pipe.
6. 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.
adjective
not comparable
1. (chemistry) Subjected to the process of inversion; inverted; converted.

invert²

/ɪnˈvɜːt/

noun
plural inverts
1. (zoology, informal) An invertebrate.

Definition of "invert"

invert1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

adjective

invert2

noun

invert¹

invert²