[COUNTER- 1: cf. prec.]
1. trans. To be a match for, to match (in opposition), to equal, counterbalance.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXIV. viii. 513. At leastwise equall unto them, and able to countermatch them.
1840. Æolus, 49. The centrifugal tendency … being more countermatched by the centripetal. Ibid., 51. The extinguishing or the countermatching of the original impulse.
† 2. To match one thing against another; to set in antithesis. Hence Countermatching, antithesis. Obs.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, 472. He was condemned, but he iustifieth; Hee was slaine, but he saueth … For these countermatchings and the like we reade of in our Euangelists. Ibid., 485. For who seeth not here a manifest countermatching between the people that are healed, and the partie that suffereth for the healing of them?
