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Instructed or knowing by reading; versed in books; learned. A poet . . . well read in Longinus. Addison.

h a refracted ray makes with the perpendicular to the surface separating the two media traversed by the ray. -- Conical refraction (Opt.), the refraction of a ray of light into an infinite number of rays, forming a hollow cone. This occurs when a ray of light is passed through crystals of some substances, under certai…

Reversed; set with the head downward; turned contrary to the natural position.

Inverted in position; appearing to be upside down or reversed, as the flowers of the orchis and the leaves of some plants.

The state of luing on the back; the state of being resupinate, or reversed. Our Vitruvius calleth this affection in the eye a resupination of the figure. Sir H. Wotton.

Reversed; as, a reverse shell. Reverse bearing (Surv.), the bearing of a back station as observed from the station next in advance. -- Reverse curve (Railways), a curve like the letter S, formed of two curves bending in opposite directions. -- Reverse fire (Mil.), a fire in the rear. -- Reverse operation (Math.), an…

Capable of being reversed; as, a chair or seat having a reversible back; a reversible judgment or sentence.

Serving to effect reversal, as of motion; capable of being reversed. Reversing engine, a steam engine having a reversing gear by means of which it can be made to run in either direction at will. -- Reversing gear (Mach.), gear for reversing the direction of rotation at will.

Turned back; reversed. Specifically: (Her.) Bent or curved twice, in opposite directions, or in the form of an S.

A connecting wire of an electric or voltaic apparatus, traversed by a current.

One well versed in the rules and principles of rhetoric. The understanding is that by which a man becomes a mere logician and a mere rhetorician. F. W. Robertson.

the early part of the 18th, claimed to belong to a secret society of philosophers deeply versed in the secrets of nature, -- the alleged society having existed, it was stated, several hundred years.

ourse ending where it began; a circuit; a beat; especially, one freguently or regulary traversed; also, the act of traversing a circuit; as, a watchman's round; the rounds of the postman.

The distance from a point in a curve to the chord; also, the versed sine of an arc; -- so called from its resemblance to an arrow resting on the bow and string. [Obs.]

An advocate of sanitary measures; one especially interested or versed in sanitary measures.

One versed in Sanskrit.

A man of learning; one versed in literature or science; a person eminent for acquirements.

One versed in the Saxon language.

One engaged in the pursuits of learning; a learned person; one versed in many branches, of knowledge; a person of high literary or scientific attainments; a savant. Shak. Locke.

One versed in the niceties of academical disputation or of school divinity.