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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

counterchange en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle French contrechange (noun), contrechanger (verb).

Meanings

  1. (obsolete) An exchange of one thing for another.
  2. (obsolete) Due return (for an action etc.); reciprocation.
    • But Paridell sore brused with the blow, / Could not arise, the counterchaunge to scorse [...]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
counterchanges Number=Plur lexicographic

counterchange en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle French contrechange (noun), contrechanger (verb).

Meanings

  1. To give and receive; C; to exchange.
  2. To checker; to diversify, as in heraldic counterchanging.
    • Witch-elms that counterchange the floor / Of this flat lawn with dusk and bright. 1849, Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H., canto 89, lines 1781–1782:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
counterchanged Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
counterchanged Tense=Past lexicographic
counterchanges Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
counterchanging Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Synonyms

checker (to checker) · interchange (to cause to change places) · swap · freck (to checker)