reversion

Noun

reversion (countable and uncountable, plural reversions)

1. The act or process of reverting something.
   • Near-synonym: reversal

   Synonyms:

   reversal

   1. The act or process of reverting a database to a prior state.
      • Near-synonym: rollback (sometimes synonymous)
2. The action of returning to a former condition or practice.
   • With its lavish brass and copperwork, this [bright chocolate] seemed a trifle too gay and unbecoming for a G.W.R. locomotive, and apparently the Company soon shared this view for there was a reversion to the standard Brunswick green.1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 18
   • Well Russia at the present time is at a crossroads. It is often said that the Cold War is over and that the West has won it. That's only half true. Because what has happened is that the communists have been defeated, but the ideas of freedom now are on trial. If they don't work, there will be a...1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 13:46 from the start, in Richard Nixon on "Inside Washington", Richard Nixon Foundation, retrieved 25 May 2020

   Synonyms:

   deconversion, restitution, regression

3. The fact of being turned the reverse way.
4. The action of turning something the reverse way.
5. The return of an estate to the donor or grantor after expiry of the grant.
   • Why nothing capital of my master's wardrobe has drop'd lately—but I could give you a mortgage on some of his winter Cloaths with equity of redemption before November or—you shall have the reversion—of the French velvet, or a post obit on the Blue and Silver—1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, III.ii
   • Each day too slew it’s^([sic]) thousands six or seven,
     Till at the crowning carnage—Waterloo—
     They threw their pens down in divine disgust,
     The page was so besmeared with blood and dust. […]
     (Here, Sathan’s sole good work deserves insertion—
     ’Tis, that he has both Generals in reversion).1822, Lord Byron, The Vision of Judgement, stanza 6
6. An estate which has been returned in this manner.
7. The right of succeeding to an estate, or to another possession.
8. The right of succeeding to an office after the death or retirement of the holder.
9. The return of a genetic characteristic after a period of suppression.

   Synonyms:

   backmutation

10. A sum payable on a person's death.
11. (proscribed, usually) The act of conversion to Islam, due to the belief that all people are born Muslim.