Rhet. [L. a. Gr. ἀντιμεταβολή, f. αντί in the opposite direction + μεταβολή turning about.] A figure in which the same words or ideas are repeated in inverse order.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, 217. Antimetauole or the Counterchange … as thus. If Poesie be, as some haue said, A speaking picture to the eye: Then is a picture not denaid, To be a muet Poesie.
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., 117. Antimetabole is a sentence inverst, or turn’d back, or it is a form of speech which inverts a sentence by the contrary.
