Defn: The quality or condition of being reciprocal; mutual return; alternateness.
RECIPROCATE
Re*cip"ro*cate, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Reciprocated; p. pr. & vb. n.
Reciprocating.] Etym: [L. reciprocatus, p. p. of reciprocare. See
Reciprocal.]
Defn: To move forward and backward alternately; to recur in vicissitude; to act interchangeably; to alternate. One brawny smith the puffing bellows plies, And draws and blows reciprocating air. Dryden. Reciprocating engine, a steam, air, or gas engine, etc., in which the piston moves back and forth; — in distinction from a rotary engine, in which the piston travels continuously in one direction in a circular path. — Reciprocating motion (Mech.), motion alternately backward and forward, or up and down, as of a piston rod.
RECIPROCATE
Re*cip"ro*cate, v. t.
Defn: To give and return mutually; to make return for; to give in return; to unterchange; to alternate; as, to reciprocate favors. Cowper.
RECIPROCATION
Re*cip`ro*ca"tion, n. Etym: [L. reciprocatio: cf. F. reciprocation.]
1. The act of reciprocating; interchange of acts; a mutual giving and returning; as, the reciprocation of kindness.
2. Alternate recurrence or action; as, the reciprocation of the sea in the flow and ebb of tides. Sir T. Browne.
RECIPROCITY
Rec`i*proc"i*ty, n. Etym: [Cf. F. réciprocité. See Reciprocal.]
1. Mutual action and reaction.