12 June 2016
countervail
[koun-ter-veyl]
verb (used with object)
1. to act or avail against with equal power, force, or effect; counteract.
2. to furnish an equivalent of or a compensation for; offset.
3. Archaic. to equal.
verb (used without object)
4. to be of equal force in opposition; avail.
Origin of countervail
Latin, Middle English, Anglo-French
1350-1400; Middle English contrevailen < Anglo-French countrevail-, tonic stem (subjunctive) of countrevaloir to equal, be comparable to < Latin phrase contrā valēre to be of worth against (someone or something). See counter-, -valent
Related forms
uncountervailed, adjective
Synonyms
1. counterbalance, counterpoise, neutralize.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for countervail
Historical Examples
You had, besides, on Virginia, sacred claims which nothing could countervail.
Paul and Virginia
Bernardin de Saint Pierre
No time was to be lost, and measures were immediately taken to countervail these designs.
Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2)
John Roby
One question is, can I countervail the burden I shall be, by such help to you as I can afford?
Diana of the Crossways, Complete
George Meredith
Her object being to countervail the design of her husband, she instantly commences a system of manoeuvring to carry her point.
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I
Francis Augustus Cox
In the case of Dryden there is nothing to countervail this presumption.
The History of England from the Accession of James II.
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Very many and very strong arms stood behind the prince ready to cooperate with him and countervail any resistance.
The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6)
Hippolyte A. Taine
Anagram
no lucrative
lunatic rove
toucan liver
ritual coven
once virtual
Today’s quote
You’ve got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion; a thermometer just reflects it.
– Cornel West
On this day
12 June – Russia Day, held every year in Russia since 1992 to celebrate the establishment of the Russian Federation, when the First Congress of the People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on 12 June 1990.
12 June 1929 – birth of Anne Frank, author of the ‘Diary of Anne Frank’. On her 13th birthday (1942) she was given a diary which she kept while the family was in hiding from the German Army. The family hid for two years in a secret annex behind her father’s office. In 1944, the family was discovered and sent to concentration camps. She died on 12 March 1945 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The diary was published in 1947.
12 June 1967 – the US Supreme Court declares that inter-racial marriages are Constitutional and cannot be banned by the states.
12 June 1991 – Boris Yeltsin becomes Russia’s first democratically elected President following the end of the Soviet Union.