v. Forms: 4–5 altere, 6 altar, 6–7 altre, 4– alter. [a. 14th c. Fr. altére-r (Pr. or It. alterar) ad. med.L. alterā-re, f. alter other.]
1. To make (a thing) otherwise or different in some respect; to make some change in character, shape, condition, position, quantity, value, etc., without changing the thing itself for another; to modify, to change the appearance of.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1787. Love … alterid his spirit so withynne.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. x. (1495), 314. The ouer bodyes of heuen altere and chaunge thyse nether thynges.
1509. Fisher, Fun. Serm., Wks. 1876, 304. [The body] anone begynneth to putrefye … The ayre dothe alter it.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 219. No power in Venice Can alter a decree established.
1605. Camden, Rem., 14. The English-Saxon conquerors altred the tongue.
1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 301. Several of the Irish forces that intended at first to goe for France, have alter’d their minds.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. I. 25. I am obliged to alter my design.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 373. The heat which alters the strata to proceed, in almost all cases, from below upwards.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 164. Fashion in shoes … was quite altered after the Crusades.
2. intr. (for refl.) To become otherwise, to undergo some change in character or appearance.
1590. Greene, Mourning Garm. (1616), Pref. 4. Such as alter in a moment, win not credit in a moneth.
1611. Bible, Dan. vi. 12. The law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not.
1769. Junius Lett., xxxv. 154. Human nature … is greatly altered for the better.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., i. 30. Both insects and flowers are continually altering in their structure.
† 3. trans. To affect mentally; to disturb. Obs. (Cf. the dial. to put about.)
1542. Henry VIII., Declar., in Compl. Scotl., 194. We … suffered our selfe to be somewhat altred by his wordes and fayre promyses.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., IX. 96. Then began the bitter Fate of Jove To alter us unhappy.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 31 (in Webster). I suppose them … not a little alter’d and mov’d inwardly in their mindes.
† 4. intr. To administer alterative medicines. Obs.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physic, 331. Afterwards we must purge, alter, and that often.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XIX. 764. Some practitioners … always alter and never Purge.
