countersway

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noun

A swaying in a contrary direction, or an opposing influence.

Scrabble 19
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Meanings

nouncountersway (plural countersways)

plural countersways

  1. obsoleteA swaying in a contrary direction, or an opposing influence.

    a countersway of restraint, curbing their wild exorbitance

    1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC
verbcountersway (third-person singular simple present countersways, present participle counterswaying, simple past and past participle counterswayed)

present singular third person countersways · participle present counterswaying · participle past counterswayed · past counterswayed

  1. rareTo sway in the opposite direction, or (figurative) to hae opposing influence.

    The Kop[…]sways and countersways to the music

    2011, Stephen F. Kelly, The Kop: Liverpool's Twelfth Man

Origin

From counter- + sway.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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