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countervail. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
countervail, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
countervail in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
countervail you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman countrevaloir (Old French contrevaloir), from Latin contrā valēre (“to be strong against”).
Pronunciation
Verb
countervail (third-person singular simple present countervails, present participle countervailing, simple past and past participle countervailed)
- (obsolete) To have the same value or number as.
c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i:Nay could their numbers counteruaile the ſtars
Or [euer] driſling drops of April ſhowers,
Or withered leaues that Autume ſhaketh down,
Yet would the Souldane by his conquering power:
So ſcatter and conſume them in his rage,
That not a man ſhal liue to rue their fall.
- To counter, counteract, counterbalance, neutralize, or negate.
c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 63, column 2:It cannot counteruaile the exchange of joy / That one ſhort minute giues me in her ſight:
1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter II, in The Last Days of Pompeii. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, ; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC, book IV, page 209:[…] should I find thine ear closed and thy heart hardened, what hope for myself could countervail the despair for thee?
2020 February 8, Patrick Boucheron, “'Real power is fear': what Machiavelli tells us about Trump in 2020”, in The Guardian:When justice stops being effective (or when crimes of corruption stop being punished) and when political violence is no longer a threat, there is nothing left to cause fear in those who govern shamelessly, that is, buoyed by a mood they aren’t in control of and that no one is on hand to countervail.
- To compensate for.
c. 1700, Roger L'Estrange, Seneca's Morals:countervail a very confiderable Advantage to all Men of Letters
1988, Richard Ellmann, The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, 2nd edition, New York: W.W. Norton, page 539:If [Wilfred] Owen preserves his youthful romanticism, or at least a shell of it, he uses it to countervail the horrifying scenes he describes, just as he poses his own youth against the age-old spectacle of men dying in pain and futility.
Usage notes
Derived terms
Translations
to counteract, counterbalance or neutralize
Anagrams