noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A parry that uses the energy of the opponent's incoming lunge.
2. 2
   An act of avoiding or deflecting in response to an opponent's avoidance or deflection. figuratively

   "the parries and counterparries of political debate"

Verb

1. 1
   To parry using the energy of the opponent's incoming lunge.
2. 2
   To avoid or deflect in response to an opponent's avoidance or deflection. figuratively

Example

More examples

"the parries and counterparries of political debate"

Etymology

From counter- + parry.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.