v. Also 5–6 -wey, 6 -way, countreweigh. [f. COUNTER- 1 + WEIGH v., a partial englishing of AF. countrepeyser to COUNTERPOISE.]
1. trans. To weigh (things) against each other, or in opposite scales; to balance. (In quots. fig.)
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, III. xvii. 90 a. Yf their power wer weyed in balaunce And counterweyed aright in theyr memory.
a. 1541. Wyatt, Abused Lover resolveth, Poet. Wks. 26. With words and chere so contrarying, Sweet and sower countre-weighing.
2. intr. To act as a counterpoise or equivalent weight; to weigh evenly (with, against). lit. and fig.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 847. With whose chast lyvyng Your noble demenour is counterwaying.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 127. To peece theyr shaftes … wyth brasel or holye, to counterwey with the head. Ibid. (a. 1568), Lett. to Raven (T.). If Wrights had ten fellowships of St. John’s, it would not counterweigh with the loss of this occasion.
1809. Pinkney, Trav. France, 8. To counterweigh against the continental predominance of the French Emperor.
3. trans. To counterbalance, counterpoise.
1825. Carlyle, Schiller, II. (1845), 73. The few men of worth … are too disagreeably counterweighed by the baleful swarm of creatures who keep humming round you.
1854–6. Patmore, Angel in Ho., I. II. I. (1879), 148. If one slight column counterweigh The Ocean, ’tis the Maker’s law.
