counter

plural counters

1. One who counts.

   He's only 16 months, but is already a good counter – he can count to 100.

2. A reckoner; someone who collects data by counting; an enumerator.

   The basic idea is that the researcher conducting the transect (called the counter or enumerator) walks along a set path at certain intervals (hourly, daily, monthly, etc.) and tallies all instances of whatever is being surveyed.

   2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 4

3. An object (now especially a small disc) used in counting or keeping count, or as a marker in games, etc.

   He rolled a six on the dice, so moved his counter forward six spaces.

4. A telltale; a contrivance attached to an engine, printing press, or other machine, for the purpose of counting the revolutions or the pulsations.
5. computingA variable, memory location, etc. whose contents are incremented to keep a count.

   With a foreach block, you don't need to create an explicit counter variable.

   2006, Matthew MacDonald, Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005: From Novice to Professional, page 49

6. InternetA hit counter.
7. A table or board on which money is counted and over which business is transacted.

   He put his money on the counter, and the shopkeeper put it in the till.

8. A shop tabletop on which goods are examined, weighed or measured.
9. In a kitchen, a surface, often built into the wall and above a cabinet, designed to be used for food preparation.

   Synonyms: bench, benchtop

10. In a bathroom, a surface, often built into the wall and above a cabinet, which holds the washbasin.

    Synonyms: bench

11. ball gamesAny stone lying closer to the center than any of the opponent's stones.
12. historicalThe prison attached to a city court; a compter.

    He remaynes prisonner in the Counter in Woodstrete in the hole, by the contagiousing wherof he is lyke to perishe

    1590, John Greenwood, Christopher Bowman's Petition

13. grammarA class of word used along with numbers to count objects and events, typically mass nouns. Although rare and optional in English (e.g. "20 head of cattle"), they are numerous and required in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

1. not comparableContrary, in opposition; in an opposite direction.

   running counter to all the rules of virtue

   1693, [John Locke], “§94”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC

2. not comparableIn the wrong way; contrary to the right course.

   a hound that runs counter

   2 more examples

   She hated being pregnant; it ran counter to everything she wanted from her body

   2004, Bee Lavender, Maia Rossini, Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts

   which [darts] they never throw counter, but at the back of the flyer

   1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC

plural counters

1. Something opposite or contrary to something else.
2. governmentA proactive defensive hold or move in reaction to a hold or move by one's opponent.

   Always know a counter to any hold you try against your opponent.

3. nauticalThe overhanging stern of a vessel above the waterline, below and somewhat forward of the stern proper.
4. The piece of a shoe or a boot around the heel of the foot (above the heel of the shoe/boot).

   Seymour, sitting in an old corduroy armchair across the room, a cigarette going, wearing a blue shirt, gray slacks, moccasins with the counters broken down, a shaving cut on the side of his face […]

   1959, J. D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction

5. alternativeentertainmentAlternative form of contra Formerly used to designate any under part which served for contrast to a principal part, but now used as equivalent to countertenor.
6. The breast of a horse; that part of a horse between the shoulders and under the neck.
7. mediaThe enclosed or partly closed negative space of a glyph.
8. obsoleteAn encounter.

   with kindly counter under mimic shade

   1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Teares of the Muses”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC

9. counterattack

   Arsenal lacked urgency and penetration in a lazy, lacklustre opening half, sucked in by Forest's strategy of sitting back in blocks of defence waiting to hit them on the counter.

   2024 January 30, Phil McNulty, “Nottingham Forest 1-2 Arsenal: Gunners in title race after they close gap to leaders Liverpool”, in BBC Sport

present singular third person counters · participle present countering · participle past countered · past countered

1. To contradict, oppose.

   I don't remember the conversation totally verbatim, yet I remember the tone — increasingly angry on my part, and flippant and snide on his. We countered back and forth at least three times.

   1979 February 10, Pat M. Kuras, “The Rubber Gun Backfires”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 28, page 5

   1 more example

   In a war of words that has broken out between Khan and Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps, the Mayor was accused of sending revenue-raising proposals to Shapps some three weeks late, giving him little choice but to extend negotiations. Khan countered this by alleging that 'unfair' conditions, such as raising council tax, are being attached to any new funding deal that would "punish Londoners" for the effect the pandemic has had on passenger numbers. He added: "These short-term deals are trapping TfL on life support rather than putting it on the path to long-term sustainability."

   2022 January 12, “Network News: Further extension to Transport for London emergency funding”, in RAIL, number 948, page 8

2. boxingTo return a blow while receiving one, as in boxing.

   His left hand countered provokingly.

   1857, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in Two Years Ago, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC

3. To take action in response to; to respond.

   David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is “vital to counter terrorism”. Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.

   2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23

4. obsoletetransitiveTo encounter.

1. not comparableContrary or opposing

   His carrying a knife was counter to my plan.

   3 more examples

   He could not compel Mrs. Proudie to say that the report was untrue; nor could he condescend to make counter hits at her about her own daughter, as his wife would have done.

   1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage

   Innumerable facts attesting the counter principle.

   a. 1865, Isaac Taylor, Mind in Form

   It was, however, most interesting work, and the moulders themselves were a decent crowd, never tired of making jokes about themselves such as the hoary one that moulders did not live long, which however ran counter to the other one that no germs could live in a foundry—the atmosphere was too foul.

   1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 342

   Synonyms: opposite, contrasted, opposed, adverse, antagonistic

plural Counters

1. A surname.