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
Fourteen men suspected of receiving the passports or helping to countersign documents were arrested in Kent, Essex and Merseyside.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2021
Someone else would be paid to countersign the application.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2021
Comptroller McCarl, without whose signature no Government money may be spent, refused to countersign.
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
I knew this word to be one of the Jewish countersigns, and asked the man if he had anything to communicate.
From Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society by Thomas Herbert Darlow
We met at night, and had our countersigns to prevent detection.
From The Iron Furnace Slavery and Secession by John H. Aughey
Sire, a minister who countersigns the decree of his sovereign becomes morally responsible.
From Memoirs To Illustrate The History Of My Time Volume 1 by John William Cole
The president will sign the warrant of appointment for the members of the government and the warrant of appointment of the attorney general, each of which will be countersigned by the taoiseach.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2025
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
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
Under this head also fall the duties of countersigning proclamations and important commissions of the President and of attaching thereto the great seal.
From Government in the United States National, State and Local by James Wilford Garner
It was, of course, his own business, one of the many enterprises for which Mr. Spillikins, ever since he was twenty-one, had already been signing documents and countersigning cheques.
From Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich by Stephen Leacock
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.
