countergift

C3O1U1N1T1E1R1G2I1F4T1

noun

A gift given in response to a gift received.

Scrabble 17

Meanings

nouncountergift (plural countergifts)

plural countergifts

  1. A gift given in response to a gift received.

    And each gift in this enormous complex trails its own wake of counter-gifts and obligations to be fulfilled at a future date.

    1929, Bronisław Malinowski, chapter 6, in The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia, page 160
    2 more examples

    Whether the advice contained in this Envoy was or was not followed, is of no importance; but it certainly was the occasion of a counter-gift of a memorandum-book, possibly too fine a one for use […]

    1838, Charles Armitage Brown, Shakespeare’s Autobiographical Poems, page 78

    At micro-levels the measuring of equivalence for matching gift and counter-gift may be free, but for important transactions the community eventually comes to help its members by imposing agreed techniques for calculating requital.

    2007, Mary Douglas, chapter 10, in Thinking in Circles, page 135

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

countergift. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/countergift

MLA

“countergift.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/countergift. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “countergift,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/countergift.

Source: countergift on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.