Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Alternate \Al*ter"nate\ (?; 277), a. [L. alternatus, p. p. of
   alternate, fr. alternus. See {Altern}, {Alter}.]
   1. Being or succeeding by turns; one following the other in
      succession of time or place; by turns first one and then
      the other; hence, reciprocal.

            And bid alternate passions fall and rise. --Pope.

   2. Designating the members in a series, which regularly
      intervene between the members of another series, as the
      odd or even numbers of the numerals; every other; every
      second; as, the alternate members 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.; read
      every alternate line.

   3. (Bot.) Distributed, as leaves, singly at different heights
      of the stem, and at equal intervals as respects angular
      divergence. --Gray.

   {Alternate alligation}. See {Alligation}.

   {Alternate angles} (Geom.), the internal and angles made by
      two lines with a third, on opposite sides of it. It the
      parallels AB, CD, are cut by the line EF, the angles AGH,
      GHD, as also the angles BGH and GHC, are called alternate
      angles.

   {Alternate generation}. (Biol.) See under {Generation}.