run counter to

1. Be in conflict with, oppose, as in Practice often runs counter to theory. This idiom, first recorded in 1843, uses counter in the sense of “in an opposite direction.”

Example Sentences

To Steven Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard, such a move would run counter to the administration’s framing of the tariffs as something that trading partners, not U.S. customers, are paying.

Read more on Barron's

Policies or stipends to encourage people to have more children may run counter to the cost-cutting ambitions of small government conservatives; paid family leave or child care contradict conservative Christians’ arguments that more women should stay at home, at least when their children are young.

Read more on Slate

Since starting at the New York Times in 2009, he has made no secret of his reactionary leanings, which run counter to established Democratic doctrine.

Read more on Slate

Such experiences run counter to what North Korean people had expected from the past decade.

Read more on BBC

The association said a new tax on banking would also "run counter to the government's aim of supporting the financial services sector".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• argue 
• assail 
• attack 
• debate 
• defy 
• deny 
• disagree 
• dispute 
• face 
• fight 
• prevent 
• protest 
• resist