impossible to reverse or be reversed; "irreversible momentum toward revolution" impossible to reverse or undo; "an irreversible decree
Applies primarily to the use of nonrenewable resources, such as minerals, or cultural resources, or to those factors that are renewable only over long-time spans, such as soil productivity Irreversible also includes loss of future options
relates to a situation in which you can not return to the original state or form; for example, if you burn paper, you can not get the original paper back again--an irreversible change has taken place
Incapable of being reversed A natural process or operation (migration pattern, landscape, fish and wildlife habitat, etc ) which would never occur again because of the implementation of a project action
Impacts are considered to be irreversible if a chemical, biological, or physical process began that could not be stopped As a result, the resource or its productivity or utility would be lost forever
If a change is irreversible, things cannot be changed back to the way they were before. She could suffer irreversible brain damage if she is not treated within seven days + irreversibly ir·re·vers·ibly Television has irreversibly changed our perception of the Royal Family
A character type in which numerically increasing changes are allowed and counted as for ordered characters, while decreasing changes are not allowed (i e counted as an infinite number of steps); thus, multiple reverse changes (= losses) are not allowed By definition, an irreversible character is polarised in advance, making the use of an outgroup redundant This character-type is very rarely used, as the assumption of irreversibility is very difficult to justify for any type of data, morphological or molecular It was proposed by E O Wilson (1965, Systematic Zoology 14: 214-220), with examples of its application (cf ordered, unordered, Dollo)
The hash function property that it is currently infeasible to compute the input from the ouput This is the source of the term one way hash
A category of impacts mentioned in statements of environmental impacts that applies to non-renewable resources, such as minerals and archaeological sites Irreversible effects can also refer to effects of actions that can be renewed only after a very long period of time, such as the loss of soil productivity due to road building
for an automobile, not affected by the road wheels, as when they strike an obstacle side ways, but easily controlled by the hand wheel or steering lever