Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Alter

Alter ({not transcribed}) , transitive verb

[French altérer, Late Latin alterare, from Latin alter other, alius other. Compare Else, Other.]

1.
To make otherwise; to change in some respect, either partially or wholly; to vary; to modify.
To alter the king's course. — Shakespeare
To alter the condition of a man.
No power in Venice can alter a decree.
It gilds all objects, but it alters none. — Pope
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. — Bible (KJV) - Psalm lxxxix. 34
2.
To agitate; to affect mentally. [Obsolete] — Milton
3.
To geld. [Colloquial]

Alter , intransitive verb

To become, in some respects, different; to vary; to change; as, the weather alters almost daily; rocks or minerals alter by exposure.
The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. — Dan. vi. 8