Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To oppose and mitigate the effects of by contrary action; check.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To act in opposition to; hinder, defeat, or frustrate by contrary agency.
  • Synonyms To thwart, check, contravene, cross, neutralize.

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

  • transitive verb To act in opposition to; to hinder, defeat, or frustrate, by contrary agency or influence.

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

  • verb To act in opposition to; to hinder, defeat, or frustrate, by contrary agency or influence; as, to counteract the effect of medicines; to counteract good advice.

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

  • verb act in opposition to
  • verb oppose and mitigate the effects of by contrary actions
  • verb oppose or check by a counteraction
  • verb destroy property or hinder normal operations

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From counter- +‎ act.

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Examples

  • Another influence we have to counteract is that of newspaper headings and placards which catch the eye of children in the streets and appeal so powerfully to their imagination.

    The Art of the Story-Teller 1915

  • To ease symptoms, your doctor might change the drug or dose, or add another drug to help counteract akathisia, such as a beta-blocker or a benzodiazepine like clonazepam Klonopin and generic. metoclopramideprochlorperazine

    Q&A: Easing the discomfort of akathisia? 2009

  • To ease symptoms, your doctor might change the drug or dose, or add another drug to help counteract akathisia, such as a beta-blocker or a benzodiazepine like clonazepam (Klonopin and generic). metoclopramideprochlorperazine

    Q&A: Easing the discomfort of akathisia? 2009

  • That's a very large range of possible totals... and given that the total forcing is so uncertain there seems to be no basis at all for thinking that you must "counteract" a smaller estimate of the aerosol forcing.

    Rabett Run EliRabett 2009

  • At this point, does the McCain campaign do something to kind of counteract that?

    CNN Transcript Oct 22, 2008 2008

  • In fact, the information that Nick provides raises even more questions: If Miller did know about Levine's argument for materialism and recognized it as inappropriate for a biology textbook, why didn't he tell Levine to remove it (like he did with the "random and undirected" statement), instead of trying to "counteract" it with some irrelevant handwaving?

    Congratulations, Chuck! 2006

  • Abigail Van Slyck, author of "A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth (1890-1960)," notes that early camps were part of a back-to-nature trend intended to "counteract" the "softness of the modern home environment" and the evils of urban life.

    Cabin Fever 2008

  • At this point, does the McCain campaign do something to kind of counteract that?

    CNN Transcript Oct 22, 2008 2008

  • As in the case of the first invariance theorem, the mechanism which generates this conclusion is that investors in the capital market can "counteract" changes in firms 'financial structure.

    The Prize in Economics 1990 - Press Release 1990

  • We're working on some other products right now so that even though some items might be going up, we may be also introducing really great values in certain commodity areas to kind of counteract maybe some other areas or prices may be going up.

    unknown title 2011

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