countermands

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To revoke (a former command); to cancel or rescind by giving an order contrary to one previously given.
   • Near-synonym: counteract

   Synonyms:

   cancel, rescind, veto, override, counteract

2. (transitive) To recall a person or unit with such an order.
3. (transitive) To cancel an order for (some specified goods).
   • 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.1727, Jonathan Swift, A True and Faithful Narrative of What Passed in London
4. (figuratively, transitive) To counteract, to act against, to frustrate.
   • 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’.”2018 February 28, Justine Jordan, “Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday review – a dizzying debut”, in The Guardian
5. (obsolete, transitive) To prohibit (a course of action or behavior).
   • Avicen countermands letting blood in choleric bodles.1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions

   Synonyms:

   prohibit, forbid

6. (obsolete, transitive) To oppose or revoke the command of (someone).
   • For us to alter anything, is to lift ourselves against God; and, as it were, to countermand him.[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)

See all 8 meanings of countermand