counteract

English

Etymology

From counter- +‎ act.

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊntəɹˌækt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊntəɹˈækt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

counteract (plural counteracts)

1. An action performed in opposition to another action.
   • 1859, James Fletcher, A synthesis or conjoint view of the points of doctrine connected with the institution of the Lord's Supper:

     This flesh and blood of Christ's human body, as the redeeming substance, should have been eaten by man as an act of obedience to the command, 'Take, eat,' &c., as a counteract to the act of disobedience, and as a work meet for repentance.

   • 2006, John Danforth, Faith and Politics, →ISBN:

     Every time there is a march by the Ku Klux Klan or a swastika painted on a Jewish building, there could be a counteract of reconciliation within twenty-four hours.

Verb

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.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:hinder

Derived terms

Derived terms

• counteractant
• counteracter
• counteractingly
• counteraction

• counteractive
• counteractively
• counteractor

Translations

to act in opposition to

• Bulgarian: противодействам (protivodejstvam)
• Dutch: tegengaan (nl)
• Finnish: vastustaa (fi)
• German: entgegenwirken (de), bekämpfen (de)
• Greek: αντενεργώ (el) (antenergó), αντιδρώ (el) (antidró), αντιπράττω (el) (antiprátto)

  Ancient: ἀντιπράσσω (antiprássō)

• Hungarian: ellensúlyoz (hu)
• Italian: contrastare (it)
• Kannada: ಮಲೆ (kn) (male), ಮಾರು (kn) (māru)
• Russian: противоде́йствовать (ru) (protivodéjstvovatʹ), противостоять (ru) (protivostojatʹ)
• Swedish: motverka (sv)