[ad. F. contrefort or It. contraforte (Florio): see COUNTER-.]
1. A buttress or projecting piece of masonry to support and strengthen a wall or terrace: a. in Fortif.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., III. ii. The bulwarks and the rampires [must be] large and strong, With cavalieros and thick counterforts.
1599. Minsheu, Sp. Dict. Contrafuerte, a counterfort or skonce.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Counter-forts (in Fortif.) are certain Pillars and Parts of the Walls of a Place, distant from 15 to 20 Foot one from another.
1828. J. M. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (ed. 2), 353. For full scarpe revêtements … the length of the counterforts should be one-fifth of their height.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 269. The counterfort joins the escarp.
fig. 1877. Wraxall, Hugo’s Misérables, II. lxx. Mitchell’s brigade, and Maitland’s guards, as epaulments and counterforts.
b. in Arch.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Counterforts, Buttresses, or Spurs, are pillars of masonry, serving to prop or sustain walls or terrasses, subject to buldge, or be thrown down.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 210. The quay-wall was … strengthened at the back by strong counter-forts.
1887. W. G. Palgrave, Ulysses, 30. The path is kept in fairly good order, propped up by stone counterforts.
2. transf. A lateral spur projecting from a mountain or mountain-chain.
[1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xiii. 163. Rocks … acting as contreforts or supports to the higher mountain summit.]
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxv. IV. 16. Between the … gulf and the eastern counterforts of Olympus and Bermius.
† 3. nonce-use. A fort raised by the besiegers, an opposing fort. [f. COUNTER- 3.]
a. 1640. Jackson, Creed, XII. xvi. Wks. XII. 128. We are to shake these two rotten foundations whereon their arguments … are grounded … Our first counterfort shall be this.
