Definition of COUNTERWEIGHT

Examples of counterweight in a Sentence

The crane has a heavy counterweight on the back. hard work can often be a counterweight to modest intelligence

Recent Examples on the Web

But American forces are not inside the country to act as a counterweight to Iran, despite bin Salman’s wishes. — W.j. Hennigan, Time, "Saudi Crown Prince Says U.S. Troops Should Stay in Syria," 30 Mar. 2018 Mr Tillerson, for all his failures, sought to provide a moderate counterweight to Mr Trump’s impulsive and irrational views. — The Economist, "The Trump-whisperer," 15 Mar. 2018 At least in the immediate aftermath of the 1991 victory, the American administration wanted Iraq, without WMD but otherwise flourishing, as a responsible power in the Middle East and counterweight to Iran. — The Economist, "How Iraq was deprived of its weapons of mass destruction," 5 July 2018 Most visible in these brand’s provinçal straw hats and loose, flowing garments, the pastoral trend is an aesthetic and philosophical counterweight to fashion’s obsessions with speed, hype, and urgency. — Steff Yotka, Vogue, "The Spring 2019 Men’s Trend Report," 27 June 2018 Winning for Women, an organization founded this year as a conservative counterweight to EMILY’s List, aims to change that. — Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY, "Women break new records for political giving ahead of midterm elections," 9 May 2018 Far from the main targets following the 1980s coup, Islamists, and Erdogan with them, were growing in strength in the 1980s and increasingly supported by the state, which had come to see them as a useful counterweight to the left. — Patrick Keddie, The New Republic, "Understanding Authoritarianism Through Soccer," 7 May 2018 Typically, trebuchets of this size have a counterweight 100 times bigger than the projectile. — William Gurstelle, Popular Mechanics, "The Legend of Ludgar the War Wolf, King of the Trebuchets," 1 May 2017 The group was recently formed as a counterweight to Judicial Crisis Network, a right-leaning group whose advocacy helped block President Obama’s nominee from being considered in 2016 and supported Gorsuch’s nomination in 2017. — Sarah D. Wire, latimes.com, "Democrats' long-shot plan to stop Trump's Supreme Court pick," 8 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'counterweight.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.