REVERSALS

Here's a game we played at our dinner party:

From Richard Nordquist

REVERSALS: A palindrome is a word which reads the same backward and forward. However, if reading a word backward produces a different word, then that's what's known as a reversal or an inversion. For example, the word pairs mug-gum and star-rats are reversals.

Below are 10 pairs of definitions, each of which corresponds to a pair of reversals. To make it easy, each word contains 6 letters (An asterisk indicates either a hyphenated word or a two-word term.) Your job is to identify the reversal. Answers are below.

1. (a) Knives, forks, and ______.
(b) Pries in a sneaking or meddlesome manner.

2. (a) Committed an offense or fault.
(b) ______the Menace.

3. (a) Single-masted, rigged sailing vessels.
(b) Small cylinders on which thread or yarn is wound.

4. (a) To cause to grow together again.
(b) An itinerant mender of household utensils.

5. (a) One who refuses to grant something.
(b) Checked or halted a horse.


6. (a) Fills with resolution or determination.
(b) Frozen or partly frozen forms of rain.

7. (a) Children in school
(b) To make a mistake. *

8. (a) To laugh (a slang term) *
(b) Marked by the enthusiastic expression of college spirit.*

9. (a) Diversions or pastimes.
(b) Leather bands for sharpening razors.

10. (a) A 10-dollar bill.
(b) A substance that curdles milk.


ANSWERS:

1. SPOONS/SNOOPS
2. SINNED/DENNIS
3. SLOOPS/SPOOLS
4. REKNIT/TINKER
5. DENIER/REINED
6. STEELS/SLEETS
7. PUPILS/SLIP UP
8. HAR-HAR/RAH-RAH
9. SPORTS/STROPS
10. TENNER/RENNET