countermand

From Old French contremander, from Medieval Latin contramandō, from contra + mandō (“I order; I command”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊntəˈmɑːnd/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊntɚˌmænd/, /ˌkaʊntɚˈmænd/

countermand (third-person singular simple present countermands, present participle countermanding, simple past and past participle countermanded) (transitive)

1. To revoke (a former command); to cancel or rescind by giving an order contrary to one previously given.

   Synonyms: cancel, rescind

   to countermand an order for goods

2. To recall a person or unit with such an order.
3. To cancel an order for (some specified goods).
   • 1727, Jonathan Swift, A True and Faithful Narrative of What Passed in London:

     Three of the maids of honour ſent to countermand their birth-day cloaths; 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.

4. (figuratively) To counteract, to act against, to frustrate.
   • 2018 February 28, Justine Jordan, “Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday review – a dizzying debut”, in The Guardian‎:

     Early on, Ezra gives her a lesson to countermand the endless female impulse to apologise: “Darling, don’t continually say ‘I’m sorry’. Next time you feel like saying ‘I’m sorry’, instead say ‘Fuck you’.”

5. (obsolete) To prohibit (a course of action or behavior).

   Synonyms: prohibit, forbid

   • 1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions:

     Avicen countermands letting blood in choleric bodles.

6. (obsolete) To oppose or revoke the command of (someone).
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     For us to alter anything, is to lift ourselves against God; and, as it were, to countermand him.

7. (obsolete) To maintain control of, to keep under command.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene i:

     Two thousand horſe ſhal forrage vp and downe,
     That no reliefe or ſuccour come by land.
     And all the ſea my Gallies countermaund.

countermand (plural countermands)

1. An order to the contrary of a previous one.