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revert
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  • IN THE DAYS that followed, the reversion to a strict shift sys1 tem dispelled the sense of floating timelessness of those first twenty-four hours.†   (source)
  • He had reverted to his usual tightly contained self by the time he arrived to warn the leader of the Alyssian outpost of a possible attack from Redd.†   (source)
  • I completely reverted.†   (source)
  • But then she reverts to her original misconception.†   (source)
  • My smile wavers as I revert to my natural state of being: nervous and weird.†   (source)
  • When it made contact with his skin, he grunted once and then reverted to silence.†   (source)
  • His eyes reverted to me in alarm.†   (source)
  • In a pinch, he reverts to his previous profession, petty theft.†   (source)
  • I shook my head, thinking that I'd rather be alone than revert to the kind of person I'd been, but I found myself wondering whether I would end up being as monkish as my dad.†   (source)
  • When it was all over, she would revert to her quietest and most cultured tone, speaking barely above a whisper.†   (source)
  • I revert my eyes.†   (source)
  • Do they breed to make up the difference and then revert to their current sexless behavior?†   (source)
  • With no compass, only my watch, I had to revert to navigation by the stars, which mercifully were now out, the thick high banks of clouds having passed over.†   (source)
  • You'd be feeding them maybe, holding out a piece of rabbit in your hand, and the animal would revert--bite your hand clean off.†   (source)
  • It is less frenetic than it was during the day, like the nurses and machines are all a little tired and have reverted to power-save mode.†   (source)
  • Then I had just enough energy to revert to Muffin's form and slip into the Duat.†   (source)
  • They might even steal their present back she thought, and realized with a pang how quickly she had reverted to thinking of them as though they were a single unit once again.†   (source)
  • The semicircular blades click-clacked again, slicing the creatures completely in two, and then the Golems abruptly reverted to their muddy origin.†   (source)
  • But then, when we'd talk on the phone, she'd revert back to old form.†   (source)
  • Since everything at the shack had reverted back to its original desolation, Mack had begun to wonder if Missy's body might still be in the cave.†   (source)
  • Andie had reverted to her old cheery self after Amy returned.†   (source)
  • Too few individuals, and a people reverts to a mob.†   (source)
  • Second, reverting to my earlier skill at capping on people paid off.†   (source)
  • What keeps the world from reverting to the Neanderthal with each generation is the continuing, ongoing mythos, transformed into logos but still mythos, the huge body of common knowledge that unites our minds as cells are united in the body of man.†   (source)
  • On the bright side, I had quickly reverted to my premarriage (read: slovenly) lifestyle.†   (source)
  • Back home everything would revert to the old order.†   (source)
  • When registering disapprobation, he always reverted back to her childhood nickname.†   (source)
  • Physical functions began to revert to the norm; her respiration speeded until she was nearly panting.†   (source)
  • The energy will keep it from getting damaged until the blows thatwould have damaged the sword exhaust the store of energy, at which point the sword will revert to its original state and, odds are, shatter in my grip the next time I close with my opponent.†   (source)
  • Had he reverted to thinking in Farsi, translating into English before he spoke?†   (source)
  • Some among us maintained that circumcision as practiced by the Xhosa and other tribes was not only an unnecessary mutilation of the body, but a reversion to the type of tribalism that the ANC was seeking to overthrow.†   (source)
  • Yes, you knew, didn't you, baby?" he says, pulling her snout up to his face and reverting to baby talk.†   (source)
  • He had sometimes imagined, theoretically, the possibility of having the house to himself: walls that might come down, space opening up, this duplex reverting in slow stages to the elegant single-family home it had once been.†   (source)
  • When she reverts to English, she is scolded, "En espanol!"†   (source)
  • Every time Hina opened her mouth, Liam and I reverted back to the same state of shock.†   (source)
  • Sudhir Venkatesh—his boyhood friends called him Sid, but he has since reverted to Sudhir—was born in India, raised in the suburbs of upstate New York and southern California, and graduated from the University of California at San Diego with a degree in mathematics.†   (source)
  • To counter the idea that there had been mass panic and looting (that all of Chicago had reverted to its wild, lawless past and was therefore not a good  place in which to invest), articles and editorials appeared stating that there had been little or no rioting or looting.†   (source)
  • It was hard to talk about love with Charlie—we were so much alike, always reverting to trivial things to avoid embarrassing emotional displays.†   (source)
  • At Home I reverted to the old Pattyn, the one unlikely to draw much attention to herself.†   (source)
  • It's not the girl who reverts.†   (source)
  • People suffering from depression sometimes revert to the fetal position, and that's what Simeesh did--except that she almost never moved.†   (source)
  • The horse reverted to his rebellious habits in the starting gate, bulling forward and raising a fuss.†   (source)
  • Whenever I tried to revert to my set outline, something stopped me.†   (source)
  • I'd reverted to the word I'd used for two minutes between the time I'd learned to talk and the time I'd realized that Rob Kingsbury wasn't anyone's "Daddy."†   (source)
  • I asked, reverting to Kyrrian.†   (source)
  • To take her mind off things, she reverted to her old habit of saying the rosary in the slums and confessing her sins to Father Antonio.†   (source)
  • 'It's a complete reversion to primitive superstition.†   (source)
  • The house had reverted to what I suspected was Macon's preferred state, dilapidated antebellum finery.†   (source)
  • He had reverted to his bachelor existence.†   (source)
  • Just then, Suze and Fenella arrive back at the table, full of news about Binky and Minky—and Tarquin reverts into silence.†   (source)
  • The old Chancellor couldn't help but revert to his old ways.†   (source)
  • The captions over his picture: Prominent Educator Reverts to Field Niggerism!†   (source)
  • We revert to those strengths, the ugliest of them, of course, because we have to.†   (source)
  • Besides, her retaking of the helm had not led to any internal strife; Eriksson had reverted happily to the position of managing editor, indeed was almost ecstatic—as she put it—that life would now return to normal.†   (source)
  • The carefully clipped topiaries that lined the drive had reverted to scraggly bushes, and weeds had claimed all the formal flower beds.†   (source)
  • Even. after Felicia reverted to using her maiden name.†   (source)
  • "Non," blurted Kellen, reverting to his native French.†   (source)
  • O'Donnell, who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, reverts to his soldier days and snaps to attention as a sign of numb respect.†   (source)
  • I won't say that we couldn't get along without you-we can, I won't beg you to stay here for our sake-I didn't think I'd ever revert to that rotten old plea, but, boy!†   (source)
  • To this day, he easily reverts to the sounds he learned as a child, especially when tired or back with his family in Nova Scotia, where the dialect, one of the family of North American Englishes, remains as strong as ever.†   (source)
  • By all logical and natural laws this war should end with all the white races wiping out one another, wiping out their so-called civilisation for all time and reverting to a state of primitivism the like of which has so far only existed in your imagination when you thought of us.†   (source)
  • If there be no offspring, born or unborn, said share will revert to the estate.†   (source)
  • The dress reverts to its former self.†   (source)
  • If you return to Rome with the letter I'll write, all will revert to its original state.†   (source)
  • Reverting to old ways —does that signify a moving backward, or forward?†   (source)
  • Maybe you'll understand that when you need to express something truly significant, your mouth will revert to the insignificant nonsense it knows so well.†   (source)
  • In Notes on the State of Virginia, page 195, Mr. Jefferson says that all of government's powers—legislative, executive, judiciary revert to the legislative body.†   (source)
  • There are also a few holdings in some real estate that will revert to me.†   (source)
  • It was almost like a reversion to the customs on Earth when banking was in its infancy.†   (source)
  • Instantly he reverted to his true self, a snake, and slithered away hissing.†   (source)
  • In future, all my dealings with Earth will be in-direct and the office of Secretary-General can revert to something resembling its original form.†   (source)
  • Who in this pilot plays me, an actor become a lawyer reverting periodically to being an actor.†   (source)
  • "Stingo, Stingo," the voice went on in lulling cadences, having reverted to the Brooklyn style.†   (source)
  • She comes to relieve him of the white napkin, but reverts again with it.†   (source)
  • It says: "Reversion to pleasure-pain basis," and this is from some observation of another time.†   (source)
  • If anything, you can look at it as a reversion to earlier methods.†   (source)
  • After making inquiries in London, Papa was told it had "reverted to the Crown" and become the property of King and Empire.†   (source)
  • Like many old people's, his conversation constantly reverted to the past, and during the trip he reminisced about his boyhood and his career in education.†   (source)
  • He reverts to it if he flunks out.†   (source)
  • It reverted to me.†   (source)
  • The rain had washed them clean of paint, and worms and damp had rotted them from inside, so that now they were reverting to their original kinship with the wood of the forest, which began just beyond the rolling stock, with its lichen, its birches, and the clouds towering above it.†   (source)
  • The American reverted to the problem of the hay.†   (source)
  • It attempts to revert back to the foetal stage.†   (source)
  • If that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan.†   (source)
  • A bar borrowed on your wife's money that would revert to her in case of a divorce.†   (source)
  • When he spoke, he unconsciously reverted to the French language of his youth.†   (source)
  • You want to revert to your lame, limp loser self?†   (source)
  • Upon the death of one of us, the interests and profits or losses would revert to the other.†   (source)
  • And then, quickly, they revert to that terrifying black abyss circled in red.†   (source)
  • Instantly, the hags reverted to their original poses.†   (source)
  • Your talk last night sounded as if you have reverted to considering why again, rather than how.†   (source)
  • In confusion they will instantly revert to their real state-weak and sad humanity.†   (source)
  • He reverted to the subject he had come for.†   (source)
  • And who was to say he wouldn't revert to his sinful ways if they hadn't been sent directly from heaven?†   (source)
  • When Harry did noi question Slughorn again, the Potions master reverted to his usual affectionate treatment of him, and appeared to have put the matter from his mind.†   (source)
  • It is uncomfortable watching another person eat, and listening to them as well, especially if they have a tendency to guzzle; but McDermott did not seem inclined to conversation, having reverted to a sullen mood; so I asked him whether he enjoyed dancing.†   (source)
  • Technology couldn't revert, but humans could, and they did with startling ease and rapidity when the trappings of the modern world melted away.†   (source)
  • The Virgin Mother and I hoisted him into the cab; because of how he was swaddled, he had to be extended full-length across the seat—his legs lay in his father's lap, not quite interfering with Mr. Meany's control of the steering wheel, and his head and upper body rested upon his mother, who had reverted to her custom of looking not quite out the window, and not quite at anything at all.†   (source)
  • ZENSUNNI: followers of a schismatic sect that broke away from the teachings of Maometh (the so-called "Third Muhammed") about 1381 B.G. The Zensunni religion is noted chiefly for its emphasis on the mystical and a reversion to "the ways of the fathers."†   (source)
  • When Harry did not question Slughorn again, the Potions master reverted to his usual affectionate treatment of him, and appeared to have put the matter from his mind.†   (source)
  • My eyes reverted, fast, and strayed over the havoc until I saw it again, about fifteen feet away, half buried in a pile of trash: just a hint of a label, familiar shade of cold-case blue.†   (source)
  • "What I mean by graceful degradation," continued Chuck as Sarah filled his plate, "is that there's no way to revert to previous technology if something fails anymore."†   (source)
  • Only the summer before, he had forgotten how to speak English and had reverted to his native archaic French.†   (source)
  • He shifted direction, moving to the right, away from the struggling creatures, but he couldn't help noticing that when they were badly injured, they reverted to their original bird and cat shapes.†   (source)
  • When I'm by myself I revert to the times when I would forget about eating, stay up all night working, go until I felt an odd sensation I'd identify after some thought as hunger.†   (source)
  • Though he hadn't gotten very far on the melody—after much work, he'd reverted to the first few notes he'd written and had decided to start over—he somehow felt satisfied.†   (source)
  • At this point, however—no matter how much he wanted it to be otherwise—his thoughts still reverted back toprobably won't.†   (source)
  • The award was given for work on bacterial mutant reversion that he had done in his spare time: as a law student at Michigan, when he was twenty-six.†   (source)
  • As the dome reverted to its accustomed state, David sank slowly to the floor, racked by spasms of coughing.†   (source)
  • The orator reverted to Mandarin, issuing orders as the impostor returned to the tree and lit a cigarette.†   (source)
  • For months, I kept expecting him to revert to his old ways, and I watched for it, ready to call him on it.†   (source)
  • It wasn't as if everything had reverted to normal, but now, at the three-month mark, their lives were as normal as could be expected.†   (source)
  • His clothes had reverted to the normal mortal ones we'd bought him in Cairo, but somehow he still looked quite imposing, quite confident.†   (source)
  • But in an instant, his thoughts revert back to President Lincoln, who now has only five days to live.†   (source)
  • Lenny paused here, pointing out that the end, the punch line, would have to involve some reversion to type, something the girl does that demonstrates the power of a single old and shocking habit over any number of civilizing influences.†   (source)
  • Worse, any attempt at exposure would risk a backlash so severe that Peking would cry insult and outrage, and revert to suspicion and intransigence.†   (source)
  • If the handwritten will were to be invalidated, the money would revert to the family under the prior will, and all those lawyers would take a cut.†   (source)
  • It's especially interesting to note that by the two wrestlers' second subsequent meeting, the win percentages revert to the expected level of about 50 percent, suggesting that the collusion spans only two matches.†   (source)
  • Unable to find it, he reverted to his native speech,By provoking Glaedr, you distract him, Oromis, and me-and hinder what we must accomplish.†   (source)
  • Every weekend my husband, Americanized for twenty five years, reverted more and more to his Iranian personality.†   (source)
  • When he turned back to her, however, he seemed to have reverted to the dad she knew, and she remembered again that Officer Pete had been here only a couple of minutes earlier.†   (source)
  • The former soldier assumes that when time weakens the dream of civilian life and its supports pull away, he will revert to the one state that will always hold his heart.†   (source)
  • After he left his boys' school he reverted to his old, unkempt ways, and goes around in his moccasins and his sweaters with the worn-through elbows.†   (source)
  • That poet she met at Lucinda's party the night before argued that no matter how much of it one lost, in the midst of some profound emotion, one would revert to one's mother tongue.†   (source)
  • In the past few clays Clara had reverted to her visionary tasks, speaking with apparitions and spending hours writing in her notebooks.†   (source)
  • A master of his craft — his art, perhaps — the orator knew when to revert to the gospel of love, momentarily omitting Lucifer.†   (source)
  • They reverted to the Shustari dialect, the language they spoke as children, so neither Mahtob nor I could understand the content, but it seemed to be the continuation of an ongoing argument.†   (source)
  • For what seemed like an infinite time they stood immobile, adjusting to the changes and the new distances, but then a sparrow trilled and everything reverted to the way it had been the preceding summer.†   (source)
  • What if, after having come into the presence of God, in voiceless perfection, in the perpetual stillness that is yoked to perpetual movement, you asked nonetheless to be released, to go back, to descend, to go down, to revert.†   (source)
  • Moody reverted to the party line.†   (source)
  • In a rage, Trueba sometimes reverted to his former sins, rolling with some robust peasant woman in the tall rushes of the river-bank while Clara stayed behind with the children in the city and he had to tend to the hacienda in the country, but instead of relieving him these episodes only left a bitter taste in his mouth.†   (source)
  • But before doing so, I wish to revert to certain occurrences said by witnesses to have happened in Port Elizabeth and East London.†   (source)
  • She reverted to her trance.†   (source)
  • Reverted to the Crown, my eye!†   (source)
  • Now, however, Sophie had reverted to the drinking pattern she had adopted with me during Nathan's absence, slugging down shot after shot of Schenley's, though as usual holding it all rather well despite an eventual clumsiness of the tongue.†   (source)
  • But even though the kids quit responding and reverted back to their classical pose of scholars erect in their desks and lusting for knowledge, Top Cat gyrated on, a grin like a jack-o'-lantern carved on his face and eyes raised in adoration of some muse deep within him.†   (source)
  • I triggered the laser as I reverted to pure self-preservation, foregoing any chance to regain control of his circuits.†   (source)
  • Very junior, quite superfluous, on good behavior, and extremely temporary; we would revert to cadet when we got back and could be busted at any time by the officers examining us.†   (source)
  • I once questioned a paymaster about this and confirmed what the regulations seemed to say: The Commandant got only the pay of a colonel — but would revert to the pay of a fleet general on the day he decided to retire again.†   (source)
  • If I flunked math, I'd revert to buck sergeant, which is better than being slapped in the face with a wet fish any way you think about it …. and I'd thought about it, lying awake nights after busting a quiz.†   (source)
  • "I didn't do it on purpose," he says, in the snivelling child's voice he reverts to in this mood.†   (source)
  • Finally we burst into the open, reverting to our warrior forms on the side of the red pyramid.†   (source)
  • But when Old Father Sun departs, the chromoplastic reverts to transparency in the dark.†   (source)
  • I saw how the cats and birds were reverting to their natural shapes.†   (source)
  • "How did you know?" she asked, reverting to their old shorthand.†   (source)
  • Reverting to his own language, he indulged in several more pungent oaths.†   (source)
  • But on some of these dish-drying nights he reverts to what I consider to be his true self.†   (source)
  • "Later," said Max, reverting to English.†   (source)
  • She's slipping up on the grooming too, reverting to her old sloppy ways of years ago.†   (source)
  • There is no rendezvous,' answered Echo, reverting to English.†   (source)
  • She has virtually no accent until she talks to a Texan, when she instantly reverts.†   (source)
  • That therapy could tame it after all, bring it into society with no fear of its someday reverting.†   (source)
  • The Grzemkowski presence reverts to stolid business, the voice becomes police-gruff.†   (source)
  • He had been regretting this ever since; Hermione would not let the subject drop and kept reverting to it when Harry least expected it.†   (source)
  • Pigoons were supposed to be tusk-free, but maybe they were reverting to type now they'd gone feral, a fast-forward process considering their rapid-maturity genes.†   (source)
  • Not by its rising is there light , Not by its sinking is there darkness Unceasing, continuous It cannot be defined And reverts again into the realm of nothingness That is why it is called the form of the formless The image of nothingness That is why it is called elusive Meet it and you do not see its face Follow it and you do not see its back He who holds fast to the quality of old Is able to know the primeval beginnings Which are the continuity of quality.†   (source)
  • For the Time Being they had no surname because Ammu was considering reverting to her maiden name, though she said that choosing between her husband's name and her father's name didn't give a woman much of a choice.†   (source)
  • They are made of chromoplastic that turns a reflecting white when subjected to light, and reverts to transparency in darkness.†   (source)
  • But then he was pushing himself to his feet, his shirt sliding back, space now between us, everything reverting to how it had been before.†   (source)
  • 'Bu xiexie,' said the undersecretary of state, declining, and then for courtesy's sake reverting to English to show respect for his host's diligence in learning it.†   (source)
  • He explained the plan as best he could in Farsi, occasionally reverting to phrases of Kurdish dialect or Turkish.†   (source)
  • A hundred cultured boys and girls slipping back to illiteracy, back to the stone age, the veneer sloughing away …. reverting to savagery.†   (source)
  • But, I felt that we should be doing something about the passengers, as well as the offspring of our many bodies, rather than letting them wander a vicious world, reverting to savagery.†   (source)
  • Minute by minute I had been reverting to the life of the mountains and the wilderness-back, if you will, to savagery.†   (source)
  • All the basic labour-saving devices were in evidence: at least, Jean admitted, there was no danger of reverting to the dark ages of domestic drudgery.†   (source)
  • As abruptly as her mood had changed a moment ago, it reverted again.†   (source)
  • At this point the Father reverted with heightened eloquence to the symbol of the flail.†   (source)
  • Pink classical facades peeled off and showed the mud beneath, and the mud slowly reverted to mud.†   (source)
  • He reverted to his feelings as a guide in answering Max.†   (source)
  • In an instant the attitude of everyone has reverted to uneasy, suspicious defensiveness.†   (source)
  • Merlyn, catching the lifted eyebrow, reverted to the King of Orkney with unexpected humility.†   (source)
  • His mind reverted to the astonishing revelations of the last half-hour.†   (source)
  • Could the individual Epsilon embryo be made a revert, by a suitable technique, to the normality of dogs and cows?†   (source)
  • He was inclined at moments to revert to the attitudes of an aristocrat, in spite of his peasant's blouse, and he even had two children whom he had believed in and who ultimately turned against him–though, of course, in a less sensational manner than Regan and Goneril.†   (source)
  • A newly-invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically "dead" (e.g., IRON RESOLUTION) has in effect reverted to being an ordinary word and can generally be used without loss of vividness.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless the sheriff had the dogs--they had refused to approach the cotton house at all; they refused to leave the road, leaning and straining against the collars with simultaneous and reverted heads pointed back down the road toward the cabin from which they had been recently dragged away--brought up.†   (source)
  • …unstated and undefined point and both doubtless aware that when that point was reached she would, and with the same calm, the same refusal to accept or give because of any traditional weakness of sex, recall the armistice and face him as a foe, not requiring or even wishing that Bon be present to support her, doubtless even refusing to allow him to intervene if he were, fighting the matter out with Henry like a man first before consenting to revert to the woman, the loved, the bride.†   (source)
  • But God called Brother Mance to heaven that winter and, since the insurance company would not accept a minor as an agent, my status reverted to a worldly one; the holy household was still burdened with a wayward boy to whom, in spite of all, sin somehow insisted upon clinging.†   (source)
  • She had reverted to an astonishing romping girlhood, and would exercise her playfulness by leaping suddenly upon Old CurlyHead, dealing him a stiff dig in the ribs, and skipping away with a triumphant "Hah!†   (source)
  • Must he revert to Ellen always?†   (source)
  • They always revert.†   (source)
  • But after New Year's things reverted to the new routine which had grown on them since Johnny's death.†   (source)
  • Parsons did, indeed, invariably revert to shorts when a community hike or any other physical activity gave him an excuse for doing so.†   (source)
  • And when the war was lost and the other men returned home with their eyes stubbornly reverted toward what they refused to believe was dead, he looked forward and made what he could of defeat by making practical use of that which he had learned in it.†   (source)
  • Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern.†   (source)
  • …contemplate at last, even though the instances are not one in a thousand thousand, the principles of honor, decorum and gentleness applied to perfectly normal human instinct which you Anglo-Saxons insist upon calling lust and in whose service you revert in sabbaticals to the primordial caverns, the fall from what you call grace fogged and clouded by Heaven-defying words of extenuation and explanation, the return to grace heralded by Heaven-placating cries of satiated abasement and…†   (source)
  • David reverted desperately to Yiddish.†   (source)
  • …Glasgow-Irishman who, when we met, was apt to ask me such questions as, "Would you say now, Mr. Ryder, that the painter Titian was more truly artistic than the painter Raphael?" and, more disconcertingly still, to remember my answers: "To revert, Mr. Ryder, to what you said when last I had the pleasure to meet you, would it be right now to say that the painter Titian …." usually ending with some such reflection as: "Ah, it's a grand resource for a man to have the talent you have,…†   (source)
  • …begin to unload the wagon even, what they did not or could not or would not tell but which had them back in the wagon and the mules going back down the drive at a gallop, all in about ten minutes, not to stop until they reached Jefferson—the rotting shell with its sagging portico and scaling walls, its sagging blinds and blank-shuttered windows, set in the middle of the domain which had reverted to the state and had been bought and sold and bought and sold again and again and again.†   (source)
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