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Said of a subject, or phrase, when the intervals of which it consists are repeated in the contrary direction, rising instead of falling, or vice versa.

To turn over; to put upside down; to upset; to place in a contrary order or direction; to reverse; as, to invert a cup, the order of words, rules of justice, etc. That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears, As if these organs had deceptious functions. Shak. Such reasoning falls like an inverted cone, Wanting its prop…

Changed to a contrary or counterchanged order; reversed; characterized by inversion.

ffect; to include necessarily; to imply. He knows His end with mine involved. Milton. The contrary necessarily involves a contradiction. Tillotson.

humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the literal sense of the words.

Contrary to the rubric; not rubrical.

y of solution. Cowper. A man shall be perplexed with knots, and problems of business, and contrary affairs. South.

Contrary to, or unauthorized by, law; illegal; as, a lawless claim. He needs no indirect nor lawless course. Shak.

Having a direction contrary to that of the hands of a watch when seen in front; -- said of a twist, a rotary motion, etc., looked at from a given direction. Left-handed marriage, a morganatic marriage. See Morganatic. -- Left-handed screw, a screw constructed to advance away from the observer, when turned, as in a nut…

Evil practice; illegal or immoral conduct; practice contrary to established rules; specifically, the treatment of a case by a surgeon or physician in a manner which is contrary to accepted rules and productive of unfavorable results. [Written also malepractice.]

g of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people; as, the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day.

Specifically: An event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event, or one transcending the ordinary laws by which the universe is governed. They considered not the miracle of the loaves. Mark vi. 52.

tent, importing a license from the crown to do a thing notwithstanding any statute to the contrary. This dispensing power was abolished by the Bill of Rights. In this very reign [Henry III.] the practice of dispensing with statutes by a non obstante was introduced. Hallam. Non obstante veredicto Etym: [LL.] (Law), a ju…

Not belonging to a profession; not done by, or proceeding from, professional men; contrary to professional usage.

. The very custom of evil makes the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary. Hooker. Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel, Nay, more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth Shak.

To annul indirectly by enacting a new and contrary law, instead of by expressly abrogating or repealing the old one. [Obs.] Bailey.

Extremely different; inconsistent; contrary; repugnant; antagonistic. Novels, by which the reader is misled into another sort of pieasure opposite to that which is designed in an epic poem. Dryden. Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost opposite, significations. Locke.

Not this, but the contrary; opposite; as, the other side of a river.

To bend or bow over; to bend in a contrary direction. [Obs.] Fuller.

To rule or determine in a contrary way; to decide against; to abrogate or alter; as, God overrules the purposes of men; the chairman overruled the point of order. His passion and animosity overruled his conscience. Clarendon. These [difficulties] I had habitually overruled. F. W. Newman.