Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In fortification, a small rampart or work, properly a work raised before the point of a bastion, consisting of two long faces parallel to the faces of the bastion, and making a salient angle.
- noun A certain part of a sword-hilt.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Fort.) A low outwork before a bastion or ravelin, consisting of two lines of rampart parallel to the faces of the bastion, and protecting them from a breaching fire.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun fortification A low
outwork before abastion orravelin , consisting of two lines oframpart parallel to thefaces of the bastion, and protecting them from a breaching fire.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The counterguard was like a broad target displayed to the marksman on the inner wall, the enceinte.
Sharpe's Siege Cornwell, Bernard 1987
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At the far side of the ditch his men would be faced with a ten foot climb that would lead to a gentle, inward-facing slope - the counterguard.
Sharpe's Siege Cornwell, Bernard 1987
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Men would cross the counterguard, screaming and twisting as the balls thumped home, only to face a twelve foot drop into a flooded ditch that was sixteen feet wide.
Sharpe's Siege Cornwell, Bernard 1987
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The conscripts on the counterguard fired at the fort, but most fired high.
Sharpe's Siege Cornwell, Bernard 1987
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Great was the confusion, for the ravelin was quite crowded with men of both divisions; and while some continued to fire, others jumped down and ran towards the breach; many also passed between the ravelin and the counterguard of the Trinidad, the two divisions got mixed, the reserves, which should have remained at the quarries, also came pouring in, until the ditch was quite filled, the rear still crowding forward, and all cheering vehemently.
The Young Buglers 1867
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It is referred to for the purpose of making another kind of defence -- a counterguard.
Remarks on the Subject of the Ownership of Slaves, Delivered By R. R. Collier of Petersburg, in the Senate of Virginia, October 12, 1863 Robert Ruffin 1863
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Colonies; when these things are pressed, or rather press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of Colony taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the scheme; then, Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive from their trance, and this useless taxation is to be kept sacred, not for its own sake, but as a counterguard and security of the laws of trade.
Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America Edmund Burke 1763
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The properties include the saluting battery at the Barrakka gardens, the nearby ditch, St Peter and St Paul counterguard and the tunnels beneath, including the Lascaris war rooms.
timesofmalta.com 2009
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Namur to get at my uncle Toby’s groin; and engaged him to attack the point of the advanced counterscarp, and pele mele with the Dutch to take the counterguard of St. Roch sword in hand — and then with tender notes playing upon his ear, led him all bleeding by the hand out of the trench, wiping her eye, as he was carried to his tent — Heaven!
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Namur to get at my uncle Toby’s groin; and engaged him to attack the point of the advanced counterscarp, and pele mele with the Dutch to take the counterguard of St. Roch sword in hand — and then with tender notes playing upon his ear, led him all bleeding by the hand out of the trench, wiping her eye, as he was carried to his tent — Heaven!
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