Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Alternate \Al"ter*nate\ (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Alternated; p. pr. & vb. n. Alternating.] [L. alternatus, p. p. of alternare. See Altern.] To perform by turns, or in succession; to cause to succeed by turns; to interchange regularly.
The most high God, in all things appertaining unto this
life, for sundry wise ends alternates the disposition
of good and evil.
--Grew.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1550s, present participle adjective from alternate (v.). Alternating current is recorded from 1839.
Wiktionary
1 that alternates 2 (context mathematics of a knot English) Having a planar diagram whose crossings alternate between "over" and "under" as one travels along the knot. 3 (context mathematics of a series English) Having terms that alternate between positive and negative. v
(present participle of alternate English)
WordNet
adj. of a current that reverses direction at regular intervals; "alternating current" [ant: direct]
occurring by turns; first one and then the other; "alternating feelings of love and hate" [syn: alternate(a), alternating(a)]
Wikipedia
Alternating may refer to:
Usage examples of "alternating".
Now flowing under the crosshairs were clouds alternating with green forest, leaden roads.
Man has attachment to the soil, both spiritually and materially, possesses beast-of-prey instincts, and shows in his rhythm of sleep and waking the alternating supremacy of the tensionless plant-element in him.
There was reported the case of an hysterical female who had convulsions and mania, alternating with anuria of a peculiar nature and lasting seven days.
The chanting was picked up by others, and soon most of the people were deeply involved in a mesmerizing sequence that consisted of repetitive phrases sung in a pulsating beat with little change in tone, alternating with arrhythmic drumming that had more tonal variation than the voices.
Into this hole, the end of the second alternating great tackle is then hooked so as to retain a hold upon the blubber, in order to prepare for what follows.
Then the boojum began alternating its protective fields in phase with its offensive weapons.
Tinor placed before him a calabash of poee-poee, from which the stranger regaled himself, alternating every mouthful with some rapid exclamation, which was eagerly caught up and echoed by the crowd that completely filled the house.
Whereas a tardigrade alternating cryptobiotic and active periods might survive as long as sixty years.
As in cryptogams, the ferns of Earth, two forms are alternating mature phases of a complex life cycle.
It was not a particularly high current that electrocuted him, just the standard current alternating at sixty cycles per second.
Alternating between his buttocks and his thighs, Francesca worked the flogger with skill and precision, sometimes hard, sometimes soft, but always there, always striking him.
Every other subject appeared to be a gracile Haluk, and alternating with them were humans.
Marina pulled the horizontal heddle bar toward her, opening up a gap between alternating warp threads.
The message to Holden, she explained, was spelled out in an alternating pattern of hydrogen atoms and silicon atoms.
The image of Hwyl carrying Cerice off fixed itself firmly in my inner vision, periodically alternating with a picture of Shara with an arrow sticking out of her face.