countenance (kountenans)

t.; pret. and pp. countenanced, ppr. countenancing. [ countenance (koun'te-nans), n. [ tenaunce , conte nance, cuntenance , -aunce, continence .] 1. The face; the whole form of the face; the fea- tures, considered as a whole; the visage. IMG:content-1431.png:[blocks in formation] 2. The characteristic appearance or expre ion of the face; look; aspect; facial appearance. Various pa ages in it [his correspondence] countenance the supposition that his tour was partly undertaken for political purposes. Barham , In golds by Legends, II. 60. God forbid I should countenance such injustice. Pre scott, Ferd. and Isa., i. 3. 21. To make a show of; pretend. They were two knights of perele e pui aunce, Which to these Ladies love did countenaunce. Spenser, F. Q., II. ii. 16. 3t. To give effect to; act suitably to; be in keeping with. Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, To countenance this horror! Shak., Macbeth, ii. 3. counter Countors are serjeants skilful in the laws of the realm, who serve the common people to declare and defend actions in judgment, for those who have need of them, for their fees. W. Hughes, tr. of Horne's Mirroir des Justices (1768), p. 65. counter2 (koun'tėr), n. [Early mod. E. also counture, His bookes and bagges many oon, He hath byforn him on his counter bord; For riche was his tres or and his hord, For whiche ful fast his count our dore he schette. Chaucer , Shipman's Tale, 1. 82. 2. A table or board on which money is counted; a table in a shop on which goods are laid for examination by purchasers. The smooth-faced, snub-nosed rogue would leap from his counter and till. Tennyson, Maud, i. 13. Turning round upon his stool behind the counter , Mr. Gills looked out among the instruments in the window. Dickens , Dombey and Son (1848), p. 26. 3. Formerly, in England, a debtors' prison: used especially as the name of two prisons for debtors in the City of London, and of one in South wark. The captains of this insurrection Have tane themselves to armes, and cam but now To both the Counters , wher they have releast Sundrie indebted prisoners. Play of Sir Thomas More (Harl. Misc.). Five jayles or prisons are in Southwarke placed, The Counter (once St. Margrets church) defaced. John Taylor (1630). That word [poet] denoted a creature dre ed like a scarecrow, familiar with compters and spunging-houses, and perfectly qualified to decide on the comparative merits of the Common Side in the King's Bench prison and of Mount Scoundrel in the Fleet. Macaulay , Boswell's Johnson. counter3 (koun'tėr), adv . [Not in ME. except as a prefix (see count counter-); contre , against, contra , against: see contra, contra-.] 1. thought. Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 76. Be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. countenances, favors, or encourages. Are you her Grace's countenancer , lady? Beau , and Fl ., Honest Man's Fortune, iv. 1. Those ingenuous and friendly men who were ever the countenancers of vertuous and hope full wits. Milton , Apology for Smectymnuus. IMG:content-1432.png:[blocks in formation] Thother parte, beinge men of good welt he and counteEnglish Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 304. The countenance of a rich and the meanne of a poor estate doth make no odds between bishops. Quoted in Hooker's Eccles. Polity, vii. 5. Hence-7t. Favor resulting from estimation or repute; trust; confidence. I gave you countenance , credit for your coals, Your stills, your gla es, your materials. B. Jonson, Alchemist, i. 1. Courtiers that live upon countenance must sell their tongues. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, v. 1. 8t. Good appearance; presentablene . tere, count our, a counter, treasurer, also a coin, Adam of Arderne was its chef count our . Robert of Gloucester , p. 538. 2. An apparatus for keeping count of revolutions or other movements. A...clock-work mechanism, called a counter, has been for a great many years employed in the cotton-factories, and in the pumping-engines of the Cornish and other mines, to indicate the number of revolutions of the main shaft of the mill, or of the strokes of the piston. Ure, Dict., III. 459. 3. A thing used in counting; that which indicates a number; that which is used to keep an account or reckoning, as in games; specifically, a piece of metal, ivory, wood, or other material, or a spurious or imitation coin, used for this purpose. What comes the wool to?... I cannot do 't without counters. Shak., W. T., iv. 2. Vsing men like Counters or Figures in numbering and casting accounts. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 84. Words are wise men's counters - they do not reckon by them but they are the money of fools. Hobbes, The Leviathan. Books are the money of Literature, but only the count ers of Science. Huxley, Universities. 4t. A piece of money; a coin; in plural, money. They brake coffers and took tresours, Gold and silver and count ours . Richard Coer de Lion (Weber, Metr. Rom.), 1. 1939. When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, To lock such rascal counters from his friends, Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts, Dash him to pieces! Shak ., J. C., iv. 3. 5. In early Eng . law , an attorney or serjeant at law retained to conduct a cause in court. used chiefly counter to the rules of virtue; he went counter to his own interest. The practice of men holds not an equal pace; yea, and often runs counter to their theory. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, 1. 55. His anger, or rather the duration of it, externally ran counter to all conjecture. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, v. 3. It is a hard matter, and is thought a great and noble act, for men who live in the public world to do what they believe to be their duty to God, in a straight-forward way, should the opinion of society about it happen to run counter to them. J. H. Newman , Parochial Sermons, i. 130. 2. In the wrong way; contrary to the right course; in the reverse direction; contrariwise. Hounds are said to hunt counter when they hunt backward the way the chase came. Hall i well , Dict. of Archaic Words. 3t. Directly in front; in or at the face. They hit one another with darts, which they never throw counter , but at the back of the flyer. Sandys , Travailes. To hunt counter. See hunt . counter3 (koun'tér), a. [ counter- , prefix, or counter, adv.: being the prefix or adverb used separately as an adjective.] Adverse; opposite; contrary; opposing; antagonistic. Innumerable facts attesting the counter principle. Is . Taylor. We crost Between the lakes, and clamber'd half way up The counter side. Tennyson, The Golden Year. counter3+ (koun'ter), prep . [ME. counter , adv .] Against; contrary or antagonistic to. There as the lande is weete in somer season; - And other wey to wirche is counter reason. Palladius , Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 10. counter3 (koun'ter), n. [ counter- , prefix.] 1. That which is counter or antagonistic; an opposite. [I] have founded my Round Table in the North, And whatsoever his own knights have sworn My knights have sworn the counter to it. Tennyson, Last Tournament. 2. In music, any voice-part set in contrast to a principal melody or part; specifically, the counter-tenor; the high tenor or alto. Sometimes this part is sung an octave higher than it is written, thus becoming a high soprano. -3. That part of a horse's breast which lies between the shoulders and under the neck. IMG:content-1433.png:[blocks in formation] Frame of Ship inside of Stern. 1, 1, pointers; 2, 2, quarter-timbers; 3, 3, counter-timbers; 4, counter-timber knee; 5, main transom. rounding the heel of the wearer. See cut un der boot.-6. In fencing, a parry in which the sword's point makes a complete curve, returning to its original position. The various counters are named with reference to the thrust to be parried, as the counter of carte, of tierce, etc. 7. Same as counter - lode. - Ba counter. See ba 3. -Buhl and counter. See buhl.