intervert

English

Etymology

From Latin interverto.

Verb

intervert (third-person singular simple present interverts, present participle interverting, simple past and past participle interverted)

1. (formal, transitive) To turn to another course or use.
2. (formal, intransitive) To undergo interversion; to exchange places.
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     And so little could Watt support, on certain days, on the one hand the pressure of Mrs. Gorman from above, and on the other the thrust of Mrs. Gorman from below, that no fewer than two, or three, or four, or five, or six, or seven, or eight, or nine, or ten, or eleven, or even twelve, or even thirteen, changes of position were found necessary, before the time came for Mrs. Gorman to take her leave. Which, allowing one minute for the interversion, gives an average session of fifteen seconds, and, on the moderate basis of one kiss, lasting one minute, every minute and a half, a total for the day of one kiss only, one double kiss, begun in the first session and consummated in the last, for during the interversions they could not kiss, they were so busy interverting.

Related terms

• interversion

References

“intervert”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.