counteract

Contents

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From counter- +‎ act.

PronunciationEdit

• Rhymes: -ækt

VerbEdit

counteract (third-person singular simple present counteracts, present participle counteracting, simple past and past participle counteracted)

1. To have a contrary or opposing effect or force on
   • 1796, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, or, the Laws of Organic Life

     Another tide is raised at the same time on the opposite side of the revolving earth; which is owing to the greater centrifugal motion of that side of the earth, which counteracts the gravitation of bodies near its surface.

   • 1911, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica - Dome

     In India, in the “great mosque” of Jama Masjid (a.d. 1560) and the Gol Gumbaz, or tomb of Mahommed Adil Shah (a.d. 1630) at Bijapur, the domes are carried on pendentives consisting of arches crossing one another and projecting inwards, and their weight counteracts any thrust there may be in the dome.

2. To deliberately act in opposition to, to thwart or frustrate
   • 2016, Margaret Corvid writing in the New Statesman, Five practical things you can do to fight Donald Trump if you live in the UK

     When people hear my American accent, they want to talk to me about Donald Trump. They want to ask me what happened, and why. But most of all, they ask me – with fear filling their voices – what they can do, as individuals, to counteract him, here, from the United Kingdom.

SynonymsEdit

• See also Thesaurus:hinder

Derived termsEdit

Derived terms

• counteractant
• counteracter
• counteractingly
• counteraction

• counteractive
• counteractively
• counteractor

TranslationsEdit

to act in opposition to

• Bulgarian: противодействам (protivodejstvam)
• Dutch: tegengaan (nl)
• Finnish: vastustaa (fi)
• German: entgegenwirken, bekämpfen (de)

• Greek: αντενεργώ (el) (antenergó), αντιδρώ (el) (antidró), αντιπράττω (el) (antiprátto)
• Kannada: ಮಲೆ (kn) (male), ಮಾರು (kn) (māru)
• Russian: противоде́йствовать (ru) (protivodéjstvovatʹ), противостоять (ru) (protivostojatʹ)