Counterstroke

//ˈkaʊntəstɹəʊk// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A blow given in return.

    "He met him with a counterstroke so swift, / That quite smit off his arme as he it up did lift."

  2. 2
    A retaliation.

    "The declaration of the Allied Governments that they will not conclude peace separately during the war or demand terms of peace without previous agreement with each other is an opportune counterstroke to the campaign initiated by Germany for the purpose of detaching France from Russia and especially from Britain."

Synonyms

All synonyms
backfireboomerangcomebackcountercounterattackcounterblast

Example

More examples

"He met him with a counterstroke so swift, / That quite smit off his arme as he it up did lift."

Etymology

From counter- + stroke.

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