adversarious (adversarius)

[L. adver sari us: see adversary.] Adverse; hostile. adversary (ad'ver-sā-ri), a. and n. [ II. n.; pl. adversaries (ad'ver-sā-riz). 1. One who acts adversely or inimically; an unfriendly opponent or antagonist; an enemy. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries. Nahum i. 2. ME. adverse , advers , earlier avers , auvers , turned toward, over against, opposite, opposed, pp. of advert ere, earlier advortere, turn to: see advert.] 1. Being or acting in a contrary direction; opposed or opposing in position or course; opposite; confronting: most com monly used of hurtful or hostile opposed ne , but sometimes of mere opposition in space. With adverse blast upturns them from the south Notus. Milton , P. L., x. 701. Thus marching to the trumpet's lofty sound, Drawn in two lines adverse they wheel'd around. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 1. 286. He looked upon the bright green slope, that skirts the adverse hills. Blackie , Lays of Highlands, p. 167. ( N. E. D. ) 2. Antagonistic in purpose or effect; opposite; hostile; inimical: as, an adverse party; ad verse criticism. The spirit of personal invective is peculiarly adverse to the coolne of rhetoric. De Quincey , Rhetoric. Error is adverse to human happine . H. Spencer, Social Statics, p. 238. 3. Opposing desire; contrary to the wishes or to supposed good; hence, unfortunate; calamitous; unprosperous: as, adverse fate or circumstances. He lived, we are told, to experience sport of adverse fortune. Merivale, Roman Empire, xlii. In studying the minor poets, we see with especial clearne the adverse influences of a transition era, composite though it be. Stedman , Vict. Poets, p. 28. 4. In bot . , turned toward the axis: the opposite of averse , but rarely used. See anatropous . [The early botanists used the term in the sense and more hostile adversaries without. Sir T. Browne , Religio Medici, ii. 7. Specifically-2. [ cap .] The devil; Satan as the general enemy of mankind: as, the wiles of the Adversary .-3. An opponent in a contest; one who contends against another or strives for victory; a contestant. Agree with thine adversary quickly,... lest at any per surface turned toward the stem. - Adverse po e ion, in law, occupancy of realty as if by right without molestation, which may at length ripen into a sufficient title.-Adverse radicle, in bot., a radicle turned toward the hilum, as in anatropous seeds. See anatropous. = Syn. 1. Opposite, contrary, unfavorable. 2. Averse, Inimical, etc. See hostile.-3. Unfortunate, unlucky, calamitous, untoward, disastrous.