reverse gear
1
3.7
- noun
- /rɪˈvɜrs ɡɪr/
- Specialized
:
marcha atrás
- No reverse gear is necessary because the direction of rotation of the three-phase motor can be reversed by changing its phase sequence.
- forward and reverse gear
Examples
-
Stan put it in reverse gear and felt everything shift beneath him.
Fiction book (1995) -
To move backwards, you need to engage the reverse gear in your car.
-
So in the car, you have a forward gear called drive and a reverse gear called reverse.
-
If you go on looking at the mirror, rear view mirror, I think you should be on the reverse gear, not on the Top Gear.
-
What happens, then, after the containers are filled, and the distribution process goes into reverse gear?
Academic text (1991) -
The truck has a reverse gear that allows it to back up smoothly when parking.
-
When driving, remember to shift to reverse gear before attempting to park.
Synonyms
53
3.7
A gear in a machine or vehicle that makes it move backward
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a gear that enables a vehicle to move backwards' is directly and compositionally derived from 'reverse' (indicating backward motion/gear) + 'gear' (a mechanical transmission component). This straightforward noun–noun combination follows common cross-linguistic conventions and standard automotive vocabulary, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Reverse gear comes from old machines where a special gear, a wheel with teeth, made the drive turn the other way so the vehicle moved in the opposite direction. So, using reverse gear means a car or machine will go 'backwards' today.