Part 199

Al"ter*a*ble (&?;), a. [Cf. F. altérable.] Capable of being altered.

Our condition in this world is mutable and uncertain, alterable by a thousand accidents. Rogers.

Al"ter*a*ble*ness, n. The quality of being alterable; variableness; alterability.

Al"ter*a*bly, adv. In an alterable manner.

Al"ter*ant (&?;), a. [LL. alterans, p. pr.: cf. F. altérant.] Altering; gradually changing. Bacon.

Al"ter*ant, n. An alterative. [R.] Chambers.

Al`ter*a"tion (&?;), n. [Cf. F. altération.] 1. The act of altering or making different.

Alteration, though it be from worse to better, hath in it incoveniences. Hooker.

2. The state of being altered; a change made in the form or nature of a thing; changed condition.

Ere long might perceive Strange alteration in me. Milton.

Appius Claudius admitted to the senate the sons of those who had been slaves; by which, and succeeding alterations, that council degenerated into a most corrupt. Swift.

Al"ter*a*tive (&?;), a. [L. alterativus: cf. F. altératif.] Causing ateration. Specifically: Gradually changing, or tending to change, a morbid state of the functions into one of health. Burton.

Al"ter*a*tive, n. A medicine or treatment which gradually induces a change, and restores healthy functions without sensible evacuations.

Al"ter*cate (&?;), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Altercated; p. pr. & vb. n. Altercating.] [L. altercatus, p. p. of altercare, altercari, fr. alter another. See Alter.] To contend in words; to dispute with zeal, heat, or anger; to wrangle.

Al`ter*ca"tion (?; 277), n. [F. altercation, fr. L. altercatio.] Warm contention in words; dispute carried on with heat or anger; controversy; wrangle; wordy contest. "Stormy altercations." Macaulay.

Syn. -- Altercation, Dispute, Wrangle. The term dispute is in most cases, but not necessarily, applied to a verbal contest; as, a dispute on the lawfulness of war. An altercation is an angry dispute between two parties, involving an interchange of severe language. A wrangle is a confused and noisy altercation.

Their whole life was little else than a perpetual wrangling and altercation. Hakewill.

Al"ter*ca*tive (&?;), a. Characterized by wrangling; scolding. [R.] Fielding.

Al*ter"i*ty (&?;), n. [F. altérité.] The state or quality of being other; a being otherwise. [R.]

For outness is but the feeling of otherness (alterity) rendered intuitive, or alterity visually represented. Coleridge.

Al"tern (&?;), a. [L. alternus, fr. alter another: cf. F. alterne.] Acting by turns; alternate. Milton.

Altern base (Trig.), a second side made base, in distinction from a side previously regarded as base.

Al*ter"na*cy (&?;), n. Alternateness; alternation. [R.] Mitford.

Al*ter"nant (&?;), a. [L. alternans, p. pr.: cf. F. alternant. See Alternate, v. t.] (Geol.) Composed of alternate layers, as some rocks.

Al*ter"nate (?; 277), a. [L. alternatus, p. p. of alternate, fr. alternus. See Altern, Alter.] 1. Being or succeeding by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; by turns first one and then the other; hence, reciprocal.

And bid alternate passions fall and rise. Pope.

2. 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; as, the alternate members 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. ; read every alternate line.

3. (Bot.) Distributed, as leaves, singly at different heights of the stem, and at equal intervals as respects angular divergence. Gray.