[ad. F. contrechanger (16th c.) = It. contracambiare (Florio): see COUNTER- 1.]
† 1. trans. To exchange against or for another.
1598. Florio, Contracambiare, to counterchange. Ibid. (1603), Montaigne, I. xxxviii. (1632), 120. Who doth not willingly chop and counterchange his health, his ease, yea, and his life for glorie?
1646. J. Hall, Poems, 28 (T.). Then shall aggrandiz’d love confess … That hearts can eas’ly counter-changed be.
2. To change to the opposite (position, state or quality); to cause to exchange places, qualities, etc.; to transpose.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Counterchange, to change againe.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., III. 168. You shall see the Stone to Counterchange its Situation, and those æquatorial parts of the Magnet, which before respected the East, shall now wheel about, and fix themselves in the West.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 154. When they are counterchanged the Ranter becomes an Hypocrite, and the Hypocrite an able Ranter.
b. absol. or intr. To change places or parts.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 65. The contracting sovereign counterchanged; Charles swore in Deutsch, Louis in Roman.
3. Her. To interchange or reverse the tinctures; to give (a charge) the same tinctures as the field (when this is of two tinctures), but reversed; so that e.g., colour comes upon metal, and metal upon colour. See COUNTERCHANGED.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop., xv. § 9 (ed. 3), 194. William counter-changes the tinctures.
1882. Cussans, Her. (ed. 3), 82. When a Roundle is counterchanged, it loses its distinctive name.
b. transf. and fig. To interchange, to chequer.
1614. Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, IV. 54. Her Ivory Neck Rubies and Saphirs counter-chang’d in check.
1728. R. North, Mem. Musick (1846), 32. Counterchanging harsh and mild consonances.
1830. Tennyson, Arab. Nts., 84. A sudden splendour … counterchanged The level lake with diamond-plots Of dark and bright. Ibid. (1850), In Mem., lxxxix. 1. Witch-elms that counterchange the floor of this flat lawn with dusk and bright.
1864. Realm, 22 June, 7. The cognate Teutons, who counterchange the debatable border between Denmark and Germany.
