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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

counteruse en · NOUN

Etymology

From counter- + use.

Meanings

  1. (countable, uncountable) The act of using something against someone or something.
    • The critical challenge now is not how to ward off a sneak attack but how to control an escalation that occurs in plain sight — for instance, a conventional conflict that goes wrong, leading to nuclear saber rattling, leading to the first use of a few small nuclear weapons on the battlefield, leading to the counteruse of small nuclear weapons, leading to much of the world sliding uncontrollably into extinction. 2024 December 2, William Langewiesche, “The Secret Pentagon War Game That Offers a Stark Warning for Our Time”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
counteruses Number=Plur lexicographic

counteruse en · VERB

Etymology

From counter- + use.

Meanings

  1. (transitive) To use something against (someone or something).
    • By the story's end, both sides are using and counterusing this technique, evading each other "to and fro along an ever increasing complexity of mutually perpendicular time axes." Indeed, the final count exceeds 75(!) time axes, making two-dimensional time look rather skimpy by comparison. 1993, Paul J. Nahin, Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction, Woodbury, N.Y.: American Institute of Physics, →ISBN, page 164:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
counterused Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
counterused Tense=Past lexicographic
counteruses Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
counterusing Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic