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Countermand   Listen
verb
Countermand  v. t.  (past & past part. countermanded; pres. part. countermanding)  
1.
To revoke (a former command); to cancel or rescind by giving an order contrary to one previously given; as, to countermand an order for goods.
2.
To prohibit; to forbid. (Obs.) "Avicen countermands letting blood in choleric bodies."
3.
To oppose; to revoke the command of. "For us to alter anything, is to lift ourselves against God; and, as it were, to countermand him."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Countermand" Quotes from Famous Books



... goeth, and to that man, Come, and he cometh, that is obedience."——He answered, "To suffer, Sir, is also obedience, howbeit not of the same kind, and that obedience was not absolute but limited with exception, of a countermand from a superior power." "I am informed, said the king, ye are a refractor, the bishop of Glasgow your ordinary, and bishop of Caithness the moderator and your presbytery, testify ye have kept no order, ye have repaired ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... give her.' The time has long since passed—Mme. du Barry does not appear. Choiseul (her enemy) and his friends radiate joy; Richelieu, in a corner of the room, feels assurance failing him. The king goes to the window, looks into the night—nothing. Finally, he decides, he opens his mouth to countermand the presentation. 'Sire, Mme. du Barry!' cries Richelieu, who had just recognized the carriage and the livery of the favorite; 'she will enter if you give the order.' Just then, Mme. du Barry enters behind the Comtesse de Bearn, ...
— Women of Modern France - Woman In All Ages And In All Countries • Hugo P. Thieme

... found no great difficulty to obtain what he asked, as the sultan had determined already; orders were given to put a stop to all rejoicings in the palace and town, and expresses dispatched to all parts of his dominions to countermand them; and, in a short time, all ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... States were thus pulling different ways, British diplomacy won two notable triumphs at The Hague. By dint of threatening Haugwitz with the rupture of the whole negotiation, Malmesbury induced that Minister to countermand the order for the retirement of the Prussian troops, which had already begun. He thereby saved the Allies in the Palatinate and Flanders from very serious risks in view of the gathering masses of the French.[348] Further, ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... "I countermand the order," repeated Easel, with a singular smile on his face; "and desire you, Mr. M'Loughlin, to withhold ...
— Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... don't mention my name. Tell your brokers to buy quietly at the market just as much as you can stand. Tell 'em to buy till you countermand their instructions. I'll let you know when to do that. Tell 'em to buy at the present market. If the price breaks keep on buying. And if you go away anywhere let me know where a wire ...
— Desert Conquest - or, Precious Waters • A. M. Chisholm

... (railway) no bien, as soon a | pana (acordonada), cords (corduroy) perspectivas, prospects piezas de repuesto, spare pieces (machinery) puros, cigarros, tabacos, cigars quinta, villa rastrillos, harrows rechazar, to reject reja, ploughshare revocar, contramandar, to countermand *tener cuenta, to pay, viz., to be advantageous terreno, land traspaso, goodwill ...
— Pitman's Commercial Spanish Grammar (2nd ed.) • C. A. Toledano

... secretary, that some information of popular movements within a few miles, having been conveyed to him late in the day, he had put himself at the head of a squadron of his yeomanry to ascertain the nature of the disturbance, and as it was then too late to countermand the invitations to the ball, had given strict orders that the cause of his absence should be concealed, and that the entertainments should go on as if ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various

... are aroused, extremely credulous of evil against its opponents. Only one thing in the account a little surprises me, and that is the colonel's order. If the officer was a colonel, would a subaltern be able quietly to countermand his orders? Is there not some mistake of rank here, or perhaps a misunderstanding ...
— The Better Germany in War Time - Being some Facts towards Fellowship • Harold Picton

... French ship was well and nimbly handled. As she came round she unavoidably sheered towards her enemies, and Sir Gervaise found it necessary to countermand his last order, and to come swiftly up to the wind, both to avoid her raking broadside, and to prevent running into his own consort. But the Carnatic, having a little more room, first kept off, and then came to the ...
— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper

... with less encouragement. Bermuda had been made a subject of inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee, and the House of Commons being averse to any further expense, Sir Francis Baring was compelled to countermand much of the action ...
— The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II • Thomas Lord Cochrane

... contento, content, contentment contestar, responder, to answer, to reply continuamente,, continually continuar, to continue contra, en contra de, against contrabando, contraband contramaestre de filatura, master spinner contramandar, revocar, to countermand, to revoke contrario, unfavourable, contrary, adverse contratiempo, hitch contrato, contract, written agreement contribuir, to contribute contrincante, competidor, competitor, neighbour convencer, to convince conveniente, convenient, suitable convenio, agreement ...
— Pitman's Commercial Spanish Grammar (2nd ed.) • C. A. Toledano

... his shoulders, and in a tone of bitter scorn, retorted: "Come, Mons. Fortunat, if you wish to lose the forty thousand francs you advanced to me, it's easy enough to do so. Run to Madame d'Argeles's house, ask for M. de Coralth, and tell him I countermand my order. My rival will be saved, and will marry Mademoiselle Marguerite ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... Steffink, hitherto with some justification, called his rock-garden. The rock part of it was still there when the waltz had been accorded its third encore. Luke, more than ever like a cooped hen behind the cow-house bars, was in a position to realise the feelings of concert-goers unable to countermand the call for an encore which they neither desire ...
— The Toys of Peace • Saki

... The officials, who had long played falsely with a liberty-loving, yet loyal people, now fairly quailed before the whirlwind of their righteous indignation. Two days after Bernard had "intimated his apprehensions," as though steps had been taken to countermand the order for the troops, the following semi-official doubt appeared in the "News-Letter":—"It is conjectured that there are troops to come here; but at present we can find no authentic accounts of it, nor that any person has declared that they actually are, though ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 56, June, 1862 • Various

... head, and saw that she must countermand most of the orders. Still she was human, and she was a female. She could not altogether desert one so helpless, in a moment of such extreme distress. She reflected on the matter for a minute or two, and opened ...
— Autobiography of a Pocket-Hankerchief • James Fenimore Cooper

... or even two handkerchiefs. When his wardrobe gave out, and he was forced to see his tailor, he became very nervous. He would walk the room in agony, give orders to have the tailor sent for, and then immediately countermand the same. His shoes for fifty years were of one pattern; and when he took them off they were put in one place behind a door, and woe to the servant who accidentally displaced them. He hung his old three-cornered hat on one peg at his house, and when he attended the ...
— Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 3, January 19, 1884. - A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside • Various

... maids of honour sent to countermand their birth-day clothes; 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." But I must do all of them the justice to acknowledge, that they shewed a very decent behaviour in the ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV: - Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Volume II • Jonathan Swift

... was my slave, 'till she by me was shewn How weak my force was, and how strong her own. Now she has beat my power from every part, Made her way open to my naked heart: [To a Soldier. Go, strictly charge my soldiers to retreat: Those countermand who are not entered yet. On peril of your lives leave all things free. [Exit Soldier. Now, madam, love Abdalla more than me. I only ask, in duty you would bring The keys of our Albayzyn to the king: I'll make your terms as gentle as you please. [Trumpets ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Volume 4 (of 18) - Almanzor And Almahide, Marriage-a-la-Mode, The Assignation • John Dryden

... damns and drinks, and drinks and damns, and smokes. Members arrive every moment in a great bustle to report that 'The Chancellor of the Exchequer's up,' and to get glasses of brandy-and-water to sustain them during the division; people who have ordered supper, countermand it, and prepare to go down-stairs, when suddenly a bell is heard to ring with tremendous violence, and a cry of 'Di-vi-sion!' is heard in the passage. This is enough; away rush the members pell-mell. The room is cleared in an instant; the noise ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... that unfortunate period I was hindered from expressing myself through my work. Tichatschek continued hoarse, and it was said he would never sing in my opera again. I heard from Luttichau that, scared by the failure of Tannhauser, he was holding himself in readiness to countermand the order for the promised scenery for the Hall of Song, or to cancel it altogether. I was so terrified at the cowardice which was thus revealed, that I myself began to look upon Tannhauser as doomed. My prospects and my whole position, when viewed in this mood, ...
— My Life, Volume I • Richard Wagner

... appointed to that office who would thrust himself into his company uninvited, and if he called for more drink than the officer thought in his judgment he could soberly bear away, he would presently countermand it, and appoint the proportion beyond which he could not get one drop." The tithingman had a "spetial eye-out" on all bachelors, who were also carefully spied upon by the constables, deacons, elders, and heads of families in general. He might, perhaps, help to collect the ministerial rate, ...
— Sabbath in Puritan New England • Alice Morse Earle

... his commission into England for the leuieng of 20. thousand men, commanding that they should be sent ouer vnto him into Normandie by a daie, which was diligentlie performed. But as they were come togither about Hastings, readie to enter a shipboord, immediatlie commeth the kings lieutenant with a countermand, and signifieth to them, that the king minding to fauour and spare them for that iournie, would that euery of them should giue him 10. shillings (as Matt. Paris hath, or 20. shillings as others haue) towards the charges of the war, and therevpon depart home with a sufficient safeconduct; ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (2 of 12) - William Rufus • Raphael Holinshed



Words linked to "Countermand" :   cancel, strike down, go back on, overturn, renegue on, bid, rescind, vacate, dictation, command, renege



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