▪ I. † ˈcounterbuff, n. Obs.
Also 7 counterbough.
[counter- 3, 11.]
1. A blow in the contrary direction; a blow given in return; the blow or shock of a recoil.
| 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 25 The buff at the man, and the coounterbuff at the hors. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xvii. lxvii. (1634) 133 Yet was the counterbuffe thereof so great, The Knight had much ado to keepe his seate. 1594 Kyd Cornelio v. in Hazl. Dodsley V. 243 One while the top [of the tree] doth almost touch the earth, And then it riseth with a counterbuff. 1611 Dekker Roaring Girle Wks. 1873 III. 158 Had he offerd but the least counter-buffe, by this hand I was prepared for him. 1613 Walton in Reliq. Wotton. (1672) 406 Sommerset, who with a counter-buff had almost set himself out of the Saddle. 1633 B. Jonson Love's Welc. Welbeck, The blow..You gave Sir Quintain, and the cuff You 'scape o' the sand-bag's counter-buff. |
| fig. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 258 b, If Luther should use this..counterbuffe..agaynst your rusty, clownish, and illfavored Divinitie. 1641 Milton Prel. Episc. (1851) 91 Where they give the Romanist one buffe, they receive two counter-buffs. |
2. A rebuff, a check.
| 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 650 There fell misliking betwixt Cicero and Cato, for this Counterbuff he had given him. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 263 He did not commonly suffer any great Humane Prosperity, to continue long, without some check or counterbuff. |
3. An encounter; an exchange of blows.
| 1632 Sir T. Hawkins tr. Mathieu's Vnhappy Prosp. 15 Mischiefe required there should be distance betweene such terrible counterbuffes. c 1645 Howell Lett. I. iii. v, Sir Edward Herbert is return'd, having had som clashings and counterbuffs with the Favorite Luynes. 1656 Beale Chesse Ded. Verses A vj, Nor my leasure sings The Counterbuffs of the foure painted Kings. |
▪ II. counterbuff, v. arch.
(ˈkaʊntəbʌf)
[f. prec.]
trans. To give a counterbuff to; to strike in return or in the opposite direction; to meet (a blow) with a return blow; to rebuff.
| 1579 E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Feb. Emblem, Whom Cuddye doth counterbuff with a byting..prouerbe. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 33 To counterbuffe and beate backe all those ouerthwart blowes wherewith you haue charged me. 1632 Quarles Div. Fancies ii. xlii. (1660) 71 Have we not enemies to counterbuffe, Enow. 1700 Dryden Cymon & Iph. 342 Stunned with the different blows, then shoots amain Till counterbuffed she stops and sleeps again. 1855 Singleton Virgil I. 293 A dart..Which by th' hoarse bronze was straightway counterbuffed. |