counterweigh, v.
(ˌkaʊntəˈweɪ)
Also 5–6 -wey, 6 -way, countreweigh.
[f. counter- 1 + weigh v., a partial englishing of AF. countrepeyser to counterpoise.]
1. trans. To weigh (things) against each other, or in opposite scales; to balance. (In quots. fig.)
| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas iii. xvii. 90 a, Yf their power wer weyed in balaunce And counterweyed aright in theyr memory. a 1541 Wyatt Abused Lover resolveth Poet. Wks. 26 With words and chere so contrarying, Sweet and sower countre-weighing. |
2. intr. To act as a counterpoise or equivalent weight; to weigh evenly (with, against). lit. and fig.
| 1523 Skelton Garl. Laurel 847 With whose chast lyvyng Your noble demenour is counterwaying. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 127 To peece theyr shaftes..wyth brasel or holye, to counterwey with the head. a 1568 ― Let. to Raven (T.), If Wrights had ten fellowships of St. John's, it would not counterweigh with the loss of this occasion. 1809 N. Pinkney Trav. France 8 To counterweigh against the continental predominance of the French Emperor. |
3. trans. To counterbalance, counterpoise.
| 1825 Carlyle Schiller ii. (1845) 73 The few men of worth..are too disagreeably counterweighed by the baleful swarm of creatures who keep humming round you. 1854–6 Patmore Angel in H. i. ii. i. (1879) 148 If one slight column counterweigh The Ocean, 'tis the Maker's law. |