Change, n. [F. change, fr. changer. See Change. v. t.] 1. Any variation or alteration; a passing from one state or form to another; as, a change of countenance; a change of habits or principles.
Apprehensions of a change of dynasty.
Hallam.
All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job xiv. 14.
2. A succesion or substitution of one thing in the place of another; a difference; novelty; variety; as, a change of seasons.
Our fathers did for change to France repair.
Dryden.
The ringing grooves of change.
Tennyson.
3. A passing from one phase to another; as, a change of the moon.
4. Alteration in the order of a series; permutation.
5. That which makes a variety, or may be substituted for another.
Thirty change (R.V. changes) of garments.
Judg. xiv. 12.
6. Small money; the money by means of which the larger coins and bank bills are made available in small dealings; hence, the balance returned when payment is tendered by a coin or note exceeding the sum due.
7. [See Exchange.] A place where merchants and others meet to transact business; a building appropriated for mercantile transactions.
8. A public house; an alehouse.
They call an alehouse a change.
Burt.
9. (Mus.) Any order in which a number of bells are struck, other than that of the diatonic scale.
Four bells admit twenty-four changes in ringing.
Holder.
Change of life, the period in the life of a woman when menstruation and the capacity for conception cease, usually occurring between forty-five and fifty years of age. — Change ringing, the continual production, without repetition, of changes on bells, See def. 9. above. — Change wheel(Mech.), one of a set of wheels of different sizes and number of teeth, that may be changed or substituted one for another in machinery, to produce a different but definite rate of angular velocity in an axis, as in cutting screws, gear, etc. — To ring the changes on, to present the same facts or arguments in variety of ways.
Syn. — Variety; variation; alteration; mutation; transition; vicissitude; innovation; novelty; transmutation; revolution; reverse.