reciprocatory

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/ɹɪˈsɪp.ɹə.kəˌtɔ.ɹi//ɹɪˈsɪp.ɹəˌkeɪt(ə)ɹi/

adjective

Synonym of reciprocating: acting or applying reciprocally between two parties.

Scrabble 22

Meanings

adjectivereciprocatory (not comparable)
  1. not comparableSynonym of reciprocating: acting or applying reciprocally between two parties.

    1938, Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, London: Persephone, 2008, Chapter , p. 14, he was obviously left a little drunk with the reciprocatory fervour of Miss LaFosse’s kisses

    4 more examples

    […] in the year 1725, the emperor Charles having acknowledged Philip as king of Spain and of the Indies, his catholic majesty guaranteed the Ostend East India Company, among other reciprocatory concessions.

    1815, The Naval Chronicle, volume 34, page 51

    The reciprocatory principle of equal securities—equal rights, is the one to which the Catholic inhabitants of this [Würtemberg] and other Protestant States in Germany submit, without being taught to call it a violation of the discipline of the church.

    1827, Seth William Stevenson, A Tour of France, Savoy, Northern Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in the Summer of 1825, volume 2, London: C. and J. Rivington, page 597

    1886, Benjamin Perley Poore, Perley’s Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, Tecumseh, MI: A.W. Mills, Volume 2, Chapter , p. 477, In the evening the Ancient and Honorable Artillery attended a special reception at the White House, reciprocatory of courtesies extended by the corps to President Arthur, one of its honorary members.

    The conscience-stricken pillar of beautiful muscle—who could have easily killed both his assailants at one blow—not only offered no reciprocatory violence but refused even to defend himself.

    1922, E. E. Cummings, chapter 11, in The Enormous Room, New York: Boni and Liveright, page 230

    Synonyms: reciprocating

  2. not comparableSynonym of reciprocating: moving backwards and forwards.

    The change effected in the art of newspaper-printing, by the process of stereotypes, is scarcely inferior to that by which the late Mr. Walter applied steam-power to the printing press and certainly equal to that by which the rotary press superseded the reciprocatory action of the flat machine.

    1884, Samuel Smiles, chapter 7, in Men of Invention and Industry, London: John Murray, page 199
    1 more example

    1781, patent dated 25 October, cited in Charles Frederick Partington, A Course of Lectures on the Steam Engine, London: J. Gifford, 1826, p. 24, footnote, For certain new methods of applying the vibrating or reciprocatory motion of steam or fire-engines to produce a continued rotative or circular motion round an axis or centre, and thereby to give motion to the wheels of mills, or other machines.

    Synonyms: reciprocating

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveSynonym of reciprocating: acting or applying reciprocally between two parties.

adjectiveSynonym of reciprocating: moving backwards and forwards.

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivegiven or done or owed to each other

adjectivemoving alternately backward and forward

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Cite this entry
APA

reciprocatory. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reciprocatory

MLA

“reciprocatory.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reciprocatory. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “reciprocatory,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reciprocatory.

Source: reciprocatory on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.