Op"po*site , n.
1. One who
opposes; an opponent; an antagonist.
[Obs.]
The opposites of this day's strife.
Shak. 2. That which is opposed or contrary; as, sweetness and its opposite.
The virtuous man meets with more opposites and opponents
than any other.
Landor.
Op"po*site (?), a. [F., fr. L. oppositus, p. p. of
opponere. See Opponent.]
1. Placed over against; standing or situated over against or in front; facing; -- often with to; as, a house
opposite to the Exchange.
2. Applied to the other of
two things which are entirely different; other; as, the opposite sex; the opposite extreme.
3. Extremely different; inconsistent; contrary; repugnant; antagonistic.
Novels,
by which the reader is
misled into another sort of pieasure opposite to that which
is designed in an epic poem.
Dryden.
Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost opposite, significations.
Locke. 4. (Bot.)
(a) Set over against each other, but separated by the whole diameter of the stem, as two leaves at
the same node. (b)
Placed directly in front of another part or organ, as a stamen which stands before a petal.
Hear it pronounced