countermand
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old French contremander, from Medieval Latin contramandō, from contra mandō (“I order; I command”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌkaʊntəˈmɑːnd/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkaʊntɚˌmænd/, /ˌkaʊntɚˈmænd/
Verb
[edit]countermand (third-person singular simple present countermands, present participle countermanding, simple past and past participle countermanded) (transitive)
- To revoke (a former command); to cancel or rescind by giving an order contrary to one previously given.
- To recall a person or unit with such an order.
- To cancel an order for (some specified goods).
- 1727, Jonathan Swift, A True and Faithful Narrative of What Passed in London:
- Three of the maids of honour ſent to countermand their birth-day cloaths; two of them burnt all their collections of novels and romances, and ſent to a bookſeller’s in Pall-mall to buy each of them a bible, and Taylor’s holy living and dying.
- (figuratively) To counteract, to act against, to frustrate.
- 2018 February 28, Justine Jordan, “Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday review – a dizzying debut”, in The Guardian[1]:
- Early on, Ezra gives her a lesson to countermand the endless female impulse to apologise: “Darling, don’t continually say ‘I’m sorry’. Next time you feel like saying ‘I’m sorry’, instead say ‘Fuck you’.”
- (obsolete) To prohibit (a course of action or behavior).
- 1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions:
- Avicen countermands letting blood in choleric bodles.
- (obsolete) To oppose or revoke the command of (someone).
- 1863–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
- For us to alter anything, is to lift ourselves against God; and, as it were, to countermand him.
- (obsolete) To maintain control of, to keep under command.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene i:
- Two thousand horſe ſhal forrage vp and downe,
That no reliefe or ſuccour come by land.
And all the ſea my Gallies countermaund.
Translations
[edit]to revoke (a former command)
to recall a person or unit
Noun
[edit]countermand (plural countermands)
Translations
[edit]an order to the contrary of a previous one
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