[In senses 1 and 2 formed to render Gr. ἀντιστροφή; in senses 3 and 4 f. COUNTER- 6.]
† 1. = ANTISTROPHE 1. Obs.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Underwoods, lxxxvii. Pindaric Ode. The Strophe, or Turn … The Antistrophe, or Counter-turn.
† 2. Prosody. Used by Puttenham for the continued repetition of the same word at the end of successive clauses; = L. conversio. Obs.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xix. (Arb.), 209. The Greekes call this figure Antistrophe, the Latines, conuersio, I following the originall call him the counter-turne, because he turnes counter in the middest of euery meetre.
3. A turn in the contrary direction.
1744. Eliza Haywood, Female Spect. (1748), II. 101. Some turns and counter-turns in politics.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, XII. 148. Amid the turns and counterturns, the strife And various trials of our complex being.
4. In a dramatic composition, an unexpected turn or development of the plot at the climax.
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, Pref. The fourth [Act] … gives … a counterturn to that main design which chang’d in the third.
1668. Dryden, Dram. Poesy, in Arb., Garner, III. 520. The Catastasis or Counter-turn … embroils the action in new difficulties.
