Op"po*site (?), a. [F., fr. L.
oppositus, p. p. of opponere. See Opponent.]
1. Placed over against; standing or situated
over against or in front; facing; -- often with to; as, a
house opposite to the Exchange.
2. Applied to the other of two things which
are entirely different; other; as, the opposite sex; the
opposite extreme.
3. Extremely different; inconsistent;
contrary; repugnant; antagonistic.
Novels, by which the reader is misled into another
sort of pieasure opposite to that which is designed in an epic
poem.
Dryden.
Particles of speech have divers, and sometimes almost
opposite, significations.
Locke.
4. (Bot.) (a) Set over
against each other, but separated by the whole diameter of the stem,
as two leaves at the same node. (b) Placed
directly in front of another part or organ, as a stamen which stands
before a petal.
Op"po*site, n. 1.
One who opposes; an opponent; an antagonist. [Obs.]
The opposites of this day's
strife.
Shak.
2. That which is opposed or contrary; as,
sweetness and its opposite.
The virtuous man meets with more opposites and
opponents than any other.
Landor.