countervails

Verb

countervail (third-person singular simple present countervails, present participle countervailing, simple past and past participle countervailed)

1. (obsolete) To have the same value or number as.
   • Nay could their numbers counteruaile the ſtars
     Or [euer] driſling drops of April ſhowers,
     Or withered leaues that Autume ſhaketh down,
     Yet would the Souldane by his conquering power:
     So ſcatter and conſume them in his rage,
     That not a man ſhal liue to rue their fall.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
2. To counter, counteract, counterbalance, neutralize, or negate.
   • It cannot counteruaile the exchange of joy / That one ſhort minute giues me in her ſight:c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
3. To compensate for.
   • I am one of those who thinke their fruit can no way countervaile this losse.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 38, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC