back vs reverse

back

noun
  • The reverse side; the side that is not normally seen. 

  • Effort, usually physical. 

  • The keel and keelson of a ship. 

  • A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc. 

  • The part of something that goes last. 

  • The spine and associated tissues. 

  • The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back. 

  • A ferryboat. 

  • The roof of a horizontal underground passage. 

  • Large and attractive buttocks. 

  • The inside margin of a page. 

  • The edge of a book which is bound. 

  • In some team sports, a position behind most players on the team. 

  • A support or resource in reserve. 

  • The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly. 

  • A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail. 

  • Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides. 

  • Area behind, such as the backyard of a house. 

  • The side of a blade opposite the side used for cutting. 

  • The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side. 

  • That which is farthest away from the front. 

  • The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back. 

  • Upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal's back. 

postp
  • Before now; ago. 

adv
  • In a direction opposite to the usual or desired direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively. 

  • So as to reverse direction and return. 

  • Away from someone or something; at a distance. 

  • Away from the front or from an edge. 

  • In a manner that impedes. 

  • In a reciprocal manner; in return. 

  • So as shrink, recede or move aside, or cause to do so. 

  • To a later point in time. See also put back. 

  • Towards, into or in the past. 

  • To or in a previous condition or place. 

  • Earlier, ago. 

  • In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing. 

verb
  • To go in the reverse direction. 

  • To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power. 

  • To push or force backwards. 

  • To adjoin behind; to be at the back of. 

  • To support. 

  • To stand still behind another dog which has pointed. 

  • To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship. 

  • To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere. 

  • To make a back for; to furnish with a back. 

  • To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement. 

  • To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender). 

  • To draw from behind the back [+accusative = a knife etc.] (as also back out). 

  • To row backward with (oars). 

  • To carry an infant on one's back. 

adj
  • Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the back of the mouth, near the soft palate (most often describing a vowel). 

  • Not current. 

  • Situated away from the main or most frequented areas. 

  • At or near the rear. 

  • Returned or restored to a previous place or condition. 

  • Moving or operating backward. 

  • In arrears; overdue. 

reverse

noun
  • The side of something facing away from a viewer, or from what is considered the front; the other side. 

  • The act of going backwards; a reversal. 

  • A thrust in fencing made with a backward turn of the hand; a backhanded stroke. 

  • The opposite of something. 

  • The gear setting of an automobile that makes it travel backwards. 

  • The tails side of a coin, or the side of a medal or badge that is opposite the obverse. 

  • A turn or fold made in bandaging, by which the direction of the bandage is changed. 

  • A piece of misfortune; a setback. 

adj
  • Pertaining to engines, vehicle movement etc. moving in a direction opposite to the usual direction. 

  • Turned upside down; greatly disturbed. 

  • In which cDNA synthetization is obtained from an RNA template. 

  • Reversed. 

  • Opposite, contrary; going in the opposite direction. 

  • To be in the non-default position; to be set for the lesser-used route. 

verb
  • To transpose the positions of two things. 

  • To engage reverse thrust on (an engine). 

  • To cause a mechanism or a vehicle to operate or move in the opposite direction to normal. 

  • To turn something around so that it faces the opposite direction or runs in the opposite sequence. 

  • To revoke a law, or to change a decision into its opposite. 

  • To change totally; to alter to the opposite. 

  • To place (a set of points) in the reverse position. 

  • To change the direction of a reaction such that the products become the reactants and vice-versa. 

  • To move from the normal position to the reverse position. 

  • To overthrow; to subvert. 

  • To turn something inside out or upside down. 

How often have the words back and reverse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )