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Music in parts; part writing; harmony; polyphonic music. See Polyphony. Counterpoint, an invention equivalent to a new creation of music. Whewell.

To act against with equal weight; to equal in weght; to balance the weight of; to counterbalance. Weigts, counterpoising one another. Sir K. Digby.

The exact opposite. The German prose offers the counterpole to the French style. De Quincey.

TO equal in weight; to counterpoise; to equiponderate.

To take a counter proof of, or a copy in reverse, by taking an impression directly from the face of an original. See Counter proof, under Counter.

marked by opposition or antipathy to revolution; as, ostracized for his counterrevolutionary tendencies. Opposite of revolutionary. [WordNet 1.5]

A counter account. See Control. [Obs.] Bacon.

Counterbalance; balance, as of one scale against another. [Obs.] Howell.

eyond the ditch, with its parapet and glacis; as, the enemy have lodged themselves on the counterscarp.

To seal or ratify with another or others. Shak.

To give additional security to or for. Burke.

An intermediate shaft; esp., one which receives motion from a line shaft in a factory and transmits it to a machine.

To sign on the opposite side of (an instrument or writing); hence, to sign in addition to the signature of a principal or superior, in order to attest the authenticity of a writing.

eption of the head of a screw or bolt below the surface, either wholly or in part; as, to countersink a hole for a screw.

Resistance; opposition; a stand against. Making counterstand to Robert Guiscard. Longfellow.

A contrary method of procedure; opposite course of action.

See Counterfoil.

A stroke or blow in return. Spenser.

Sunk into a chamfer; as, a countersunk bolt.

A swaying in a contrary direction; an opposing influence. [Obs.] A countersway of restraint, curbing their wild exorbitance. Milton.