COUNTERMAND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does countermand mean? 

• COUNTERMAND (noun)
  The noun COUNTERMAND has 1 sense:

1. a contrary command cancelling or reversing a previous command

  Familiarity information: COUNTERMAND used as a noun is very rare.

• COUNTERMAND (verb)
  The verb COUNTERMAND has 1 sense:

1. cancel officially

  Familiarity information: COUNTERMAND used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COUNTERMAND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A contrary command cancelling or reversing a previous command

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("countermand" is a kind of...):

bid; bidding; command; dictation (an authoritative direction or instruction to do something)

Derivation:

countermand (cancel officially)

• COUNTERMAND (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they countermand    ... he / she / it countermands   
Past simple: countermanded   
Past participle: countermanded   
-ing form: countermanding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cancel officially

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

annul; countermand; lift; overturn; repeal; rescind; reverse; revoke; vacate

Context example:

vacate a death sentence

Hypernyms (to "countermand" is one way to...):

cancel; strike down (declare null and void; make ineffective)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "countermand"):

go back on; renege; renege on; renegue on (fail to fulfill a promise or obligation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

countermand (a contrary command cancelling or reversing a previous command)

 Context examples 

A week of remorse nearly made Meg sick, and the discovery that John had countermanded the order for his new greatcoat reduced her to a state of despair which was pathetic to behold.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

To take precedence over and countermand, thereby allowing an activity to continue despite a warning or error.

(Override, NCI Thesaurus)

He explained to me that posts were few and uncertain, and that my writing now would ensure ease of mind to my friends; and he assured me with so much impressiveness that he would countermand the later letters, which would be held over at Bistritz until due time in case chance would admit of my prolonging my stay, that to oppose him would have been to create new suspicion.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)