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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

Sometimes the extra leverage doesn’t count against the funds’ legal limits, because the debt resides off their balance sheets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

The British squad have not let that count against them, though.

From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026

Imports - which count against growth - continued to decline during the period.

From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2026

Those teams could make it work because they had faced a D-II or D-III team at some point during the season which didn’t count against its games limit.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2025

She was pure of heart and deed; she only kicked shins in self- defense, so that couldn't count against her.

From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin

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