alternate

1. 1

   Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly).not-comparable

   • And bid alternate passions fall and rise
   • One of the two boxes displaced by the new Pelaw installation will be Springwell, between Boldon Colliery and Pelaw, which has recently had the distinction of being manned by a husband and wife on alternate shifts.
2. 2

   Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly).; Alternating; (of e.g. a pair of tinctures which a charge is coloured) succeeding in turns, or (relative to the field) counterchanged.not-comparable

   • Goldschmidt (Austria; creation July 27, 1862): [...] party, argent and gules, an eagle of alternate colors, [...]
3. 3

   Designating the members in a series, which regularly intervene between the members of another series, as the odd or even numbers of the numerals; every other; every second.not-comparable

   • the alternate members 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.
4. 4

   Other; alternative.USnot-comparable

   • Hyperlinked text is displayed in alternate color in a Web browser.
   • He lives in an alternate universe and an alternate reality.
5. 5

   Distributed singly at different heights of the stem, and at equal intervals as respects angular divergencenot-comparable

   • Many trees have alternate leaf arrangement (e.g. birch, oak and mulberry).

1. 1

   That which alternates with something else; vicissitude.

   • Grateful alternates of substantial peace.
2. 2

   A substitute; an alternative; one designated to take the place of another, if necessary, in performing some duty.US

   • An alternate for the first-string quarterback played the entire first half.
3. 3

   A proportion derived from another proportion by interchanging the means.

4. 4

   A replacement of equal or greater value or function.US

1. 1

   To perform by turns, or in succession; to cause to succeed by turns; to interchange regularly.transitive

   • The most high God, in all things appertaining unto this life, for sundry wise ends alternates the disposition of good and evil.
2. 2

   To happen, succeed, or act by turns; to follow reciprocally in place or time; followed by with.intransitive

   • The flood and ebb tides alternate with each other.
3. 3

   To vary by turns.intransitive

   • The land alternates between rocky hills and sandy plains.
4. 4

   To perform an alternation (removal of alternate vertices) on (a polytope or tessellation); to remove vertices (from a face or edge) as part of an alternation.transitive

   • This case suggests that the alternation of a polyhedron should be bounded by actual vertex figures and alternated faces. The case of the cube is in agreement with this notion, since the alternated square is nothing.

syn. seesaw · alternate · interchange