reversion

noun

Etymology: Borrowed into late Middle English from Old French reversion (modern réversion), from Latin reversio, from revertō. By surface analysis, revert + -sion.

1. The act or process of reverting something.

   “Near-synonym: reversal”

2. The act or process of reverting something.

   “Near-synonym: rollback (sometimes synonymous)”

3. The action of returning to a former condition or practice.

   “With its lavish brass and copperwork, this [bright chocolate] seemed a trifle too gay and unbecoming for a G.W.R. locomotive, and apparently the Company soon shared this view for there was a reversion to the standard Brunswick green.”

   “Well Russia at the present time is at a crossroads. It is often said that the Cold War is over and that the West has won it. That's only half true. Because what has happened is that the communists have been defeated, but the ideas of freedom now are on trial. If they don't work, there will be a reversion to, not communism which has failed, but what I call a new despotism which would pose a mortal danger to the rest of the world because it would be infected with the virus of Russian imperialism which of course has been a characteristic of Russian foreign policy for centuries.”

4. The fact of being turned the reverse way.
5. The action of turning something the reverse way.
6. The return of an estate to the donor or grantor after expiry of the grant.

   “Why nothing capital of my master's wardrobe has drop'd lately—but I could give you a mortgage on some of his winter Cloaths with equity of redemption before November or—you shall have the reversion—of the French velvet, or a post obit on the Blue and Silver—”

   “Each day too slew it’s^([sic]) thousands six or seven, Till at the crowning carnage—Waterloo— They threw their pens down in divine disgust, The page was so besmeared with blood and dust. […] (Here, Sathan’s sole good work deserves insertion— ’Tis, that he has both Generals in reversion).”

7. An estate which has been returned in this manner.
8. The right of succeeding to an estate, or to another possession.
9. The right of succeeding to an office after the death or retirement of the holder.
10. The return of a genetic characteristic after a period of suppression.
11. A sum payable on a person's death.
12. The act of conversion to Islam, due to the belief that all people are born Muslim.