countercombatant

Adjective

countercombatant (not comparable)

1. Targeting or countering combatants. (Describing, for example, a strike that targets enemy troop concentrations, as opposed to a counterindustrial strike that targets enemy industry.)
   • In this and other articles Russett advocated a countercombatant deterrent. The Russians are adequately deterred by a credible threat that the U.S. can and will wipe out their army on the Chinese border; there is no need to aim at[…]1979, Worldview, page 48
   • It is the thesis of this article that the broad outlines of such a deterrent would include an ethnic-based countercombatant, counterindustrial targeting doctrine. Within this framework, declaratory policies and force procurement[…]1985, Kenneth M. Currie, Gregory Varhall, The Soviet Union: What Lies Ahead? : Military-political Affairs in the 1980s, page 388
2. Facing each other (like combattant animals), especially in on either side of a charge.
   • Arms. G. 2 lions countercombatant O. quartering A. on a pale B. 3—A.1790, Sir Egerton Brydges, The Topographer: Containing a Variety of Original Articles, Illustrative of the Local History and Antiquities of England, page 78
   • Quarterly, 1st gu. on a chev. ar. a rose betw. two lions countercombatant of the first, for HEPBURN; 2nd, az. a ship or, her sails furled ar. within a double tressure flory counterflory of the second, as Duke of Orkney: 3rd[…]1884, Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales: Comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time, page 480