count against

British

verb

(intr, preposition) to have influence to the disadvantage of

your bad timekeeping will count against you

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

count against Idioms

Be disadvantageous to, as in His earnings this year will count against his Social Security benefits. This idiom uses count in the sense of “make a reckoning,” in this case negative. [Early 1900s]

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:

count against

The biggest reason: a 529 plan is a state-sponsored college tuition account, so your mother’s gift won’t count against her grandchildren when applying for financial aid.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

They don’t count against either the $19,000 annual exclusion or your lifetime exemption.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

County prosecutors to file a new misdemeanor count against her.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

"Anything that puts that at risk will, in the long run, count against us."

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026

“It still had a willow-patterned shell, d’you think that’ll count against me?”

From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023