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To move forward and backward alternately; to recur in vicissitude; to act interchangeably; to alternate. One brawny smith the puffing bellows plies, And draws and blows reciprocating air. Dryden. Reciprocating engine, a steam, air, or gas engine, etc., in which the piston moves back and forth; -- in distinction from a…

Alternate recurrence or action; as, the reciprocation of the sea in the flow and ebb of tides. Sir T. Browne.

Having recurring flow and ebb; moving alternately. [Obs.] Drayton.

The answer of the people to the priest in alternate speaking, in church service.

Armature winding in which the wire is wound round the outer and inner surfaces alternately of an annular or cylindrical core.

r superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions. The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen. Macaulay.

To move, as waves or billows, with alternate swell and depression. What different sorrows did within thee roll. Prior.

nce upon the skin, occurring in circumscribed patches of little or no elevation and often alternately fading and reviving; also, an acute specific disease which is characterized by an eruption of this character; -- called also rose rash. -- Ro*se"o*lous, a.

Having alternate ridges and depressions; wrinkled. Dana.

dwich; also, figuratively, to insert between portions of something dissimilar; to form of alternate parts or things, or alternating layers of a different nature; to interlard.

A variety of onyx consisting of sard and white chalcedony in alternate layers.

cooked with crumbs. Scalloped oysters (Cookery), opened oysters baked in a deep dish with alternate layers of bread or cracker crumbs, seasoned with pepper, nutmeg, and butter. This was at first done in scallop shells.

A dish of crust or pastry and meat or fish, etc., cooked together in alternate layers, -- a common food of sailors; as, a three-decker sea pie.

To follow in the next place; to succeed; to alternate. [R.] In the method of nature, a low valley is immediately seconded with an ambitious hill. Fuller. Sin is seconded with sin. South.

ey are seated upon the opposite ends of a plank which is balanced in the middle, and move alternately up and down.

take sudden hold of; to come upon suddenly; as, a fever seizes a patient. Hope and deubt alternate seize her seul. Pope.

separate from the rest; to reserve. -- To set a saw, to bend each tooth a little, every alternate one being bent to one side, and the intermediate ones to the other side, so that the opening made by the saw may be a little wider than the thickness of the back, to prevent the saw from sticking. -- To set aside. (a) T…

h the shuttle is thrown, having a sloping top and bottom made by raising and lowering the alternate threads.

To climb a mast, tree, rope, or the like, by embracing it alternately with the arms and legs, without help of steps, spurs, or the like; -- used with up; as, to shin up a mast. [Slang]

ing by sutures at either margin. The seeds are attached to both edges of the dissepiment, alternately upon each side of it.