countersign
Americannoun
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a sign used in reply to another sign.
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Military. a secret sign that must be given by authorized persons seeking admission through a guarded area.
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a signature added to another signature, especially for authentication.
verb (used with object)
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countersigns,
present (3rd person singular)
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countersigned,
past participle, past
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countersigning
present participle
verb
noun
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Also called: countersignature. the signature so written
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a secret sign given in response to another sign
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military a password
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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countersignsimple
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countersignssimple
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have countersignedperfect
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has countersignedperfect
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am countersigningprogressive
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are countersigningprogressive
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is countersigningprogressive
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have been countersigningperfect progressive
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has been countersigningperfect progressive
Past
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countersignedsimple
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had countersignedperfect
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was countersigningprogressive
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were countersigningprogressive
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had been countersigningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of countersign
1585–95; counter- + sign, modeled on Middle French contresigne, or its source, Old Italian contrasegno
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It was to Mr. Badinter that Mr. Mitterrand turned in 1984 to countersign, in strict secrecy, the document in which the president recognized Mazarine Pingeot, his daughter from an adulterous relationship.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
A pub licensee was also found to countersign the application.
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2023
Fourteen men suspected of receiving the passports or helping to countersign documents were arrested in Kent, Essex and Merseyside.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2021
Education cannot live under any hermetic seal, but only under the countersign of man's nature and destiny.
From Time Magazine Archive
‘Me Know You,’Johnny repeated this countersign and took his place behind Mr. Revere.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
With as many shibboleths and countersigns as a dime novel, the Beggars have methods as effective as they are penny-dreadful.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Howdy"* was the greeting, "Yippee" and "Yowee" were countersigns all the week.
From Time Magazine Archive
They have signs an' countersigns, worl' without end, ah-men.
From The Bishop of Cottontown A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills by Moore, John Trotwood
Few way-farers passed us; those there were talked together as placidly as if love-trysts and mêlées existed not, and tunnels and countersigns were but the smoke of a dream.
From Helmet of Navarre by Runkle, Bertha
Every act of the President must be countersigned by at least one minister, and every minister is responsible politically and legally for all acts which he countersigns or executes.
From The Governments of Europe by Ogg, Frederic Austin
Judit Varga, who was minister of justice at the time of the pardon, countersigned the clemency decision.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2024
Frank Miller’s "The Dark Knight Returns" depicts an aged, bloated, broken Bruce Wayne, lonely and perennially tormented not only by the murder he witnessed as a child but by the countless others he’s countersigned since.
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2018
However, Mr Wheat did strongly recommend that any pardon not personally autographed by the president be countersigned by the attorney general.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2017
Despite the institute's evident professionalism, its anonymity and mysteriousness made reviewers skittish—even after they had received countersigned contracts.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2012
“No escape,” repeated the Warden, waving him back into his chair; and as the permit was not yet countersigned, Bernard had no choice but to obey.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
The final defendant, Kevin Crinnion, 73, is alleged to have helped with passport applications, including countersigning documents.
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2023
This extraordinary statement, though entirely undercut in British fashion by its qualifying clause, seemed to mark the first admission by His Majesty's Government that in countersigning Adolf Hitler they may have historically blundered.
From Time Magazine Archive
Walter, who went to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance, started out with his father in the bookkeeper's office, countersigning checks so that he could see where the money went.
From Time Magazine Archive
It took several weeks and much signing and countersigning.
From Molly Brown's Orchard Home by Speed, Nell
How you annoy me with this eternal signing and countersigning!
From The Daughter of an Empress by Greene, Nathaniel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
