Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something that serves to check, restrict, or limit something else.
  • noun Something that confirms or denies the correctness of a previous check.
  • transitive verb To oppose or check by a counteraction.
  • transitive verb To check again in order to verify.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To oppose or frustrate by some obstacle; check.
  • noun In pianoforte-making, a projection from the hammer-butt that engages with the check. See cut under pianoforte. Also called bumper.
  • noun Counteraction of a check; a cheek matching a check.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To oppose or check by some obstacle; to check by a return check.
  • noun A check; a stop; a rebuke, or censure to check a reprover.
  • noun Any force or device designed to restrain another restraining force; a check upon a check.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A restriction or limit
  • noun A second check (in order to confirm or deny a previous one)
  • verb To restrict or limit by counteracting
  • verb To recheck

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a blank check provided by a bank for the convenience of customers who are making withdrawals
  • verb oppose or check by a counteraction
  • verb check a second time
  • noun something that checks the correctness of a previous check
  • noun a check that restrains another check

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

counter- +‎ check

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Examples

  • Also, as we were rowing into a very great sound lying south-west from whence these whales came, upon the sudden there came a violent countercheck of a tide from the south-west against the flood which we came with, not knowing from whence it was maintained.

    The North-West Passage 2003

  • Every check and countercheck is used, which slowness of proceeding, or a repetition of it in other stages and under different forms, can effect.

    The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints January, February, March Alban Butler

  • One man, with opinions pretty well ossified on this subject, having been challenged for his statement that Mrs. Browning was born at Hope End, rushed into print in a letter to the “Gazette” with the countercheck quarrelsome to the effect, “You might as well expect throstles to build nests on Fleet Street 'buses, as for folks of genius to be born in a big city.”

    Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 1916

  • ’ If again, it was not well cut, he would answer, I spake not true: this is called the ‘reproof valiant: ’ if again, it was not well cut, he would say, I lie: this is called the ‘countercheck quarrelsome’: and so to the ‘lie circumstantial, ’ and the ‘lie direct.

    Act V. Scene IV. As You Like It 1914

  • The first, the ‘retort courteous; ’ the second, the ‘quip modest; ’ the third, the ‘reply churlish; ’ the fourth, the ‘reproof valiant; ’ the fifth, the ‘countercheck quarrelsome; ’ the sixth, the ‘lie with circumstance; ’ the seventh, the ‘lie direct.

    Act V. Scene IV. As You Like It 1914

  • He is forbidden, in fact, to be himself a good citizen; forbidden to be anything more than the colourless instrument of a system of compromise and countercheck.

    Irish Books and Irish People Stephen Lucius Gwynn 1907

  • Madame Waddington opened the Ouvroir Holophane on the 15th of August, her first object being to give employment and so countercheck the double menace of starvation and haunted idleness for at least fifty poor women: teachers, music-mistresses, seamstresses, lace makers, women of all ages and conditions abruptly thrown out of work.

    The Living Present Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton 1902

  • But while this game of check and countercheck was being played, the

    On the Trail of Grant and Lee Frederick Trevor Hill 1898

  • So while the South thus early was seeking to frighten the North from the agitation of the slavery question in Congress, Garrison was unconsciously preparing a countercheck by making it dangerous for a Northern man to practice Southern principles in the National Legislature.

    William Lloyd Garrison Grimke, Archibald H 1891

  • [292] The retort courteous, if not even the countercheck quarrelsome,

    A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889

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