contrary

From Middle English contrarie, compare French contraire, from Old French contraire, from Latin contrarius (“opposite, opposed, contrary”), from contra (“against”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒntɹəɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑntɹɛɹi/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛəɹi (some pronunciations)

contrary (comparative more contrary, superlative most contrary)

1. Opposite; in an opposite direction; in opposition; adverse.

   contrary winds

   • Bible, Leviticus xxvi. 21

     And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me […]

   • Shakespeare

     We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way.

2. Opposed; contradictory; inconsistent.

   What may be "politically correct" could be contrary to the teachings of Jesus.

   • Whewell

     The doctrine of the earth's motion appeared to be contrary to the sacred Scripture.

3. Given to opposition; perverse; wayward.

   a contrary disposition; a contrary child

contrary (comparative more contrary, superlative most contrary)

1. Contrarily

contrary (plural contraries)

1. The opposite.
   • Shakespeare

     No contraries hold more antipathy / Than I and such a knave.

2. (logic) One of a pair of propositions that cannot both be simultaneously true.
   • I. Watts

     If two universals differ in quality, they are contraries; as, every vine is a tree; no vine is a tree. These can never be both true together; but they may be both false.

• witherward

• by contraries
• on the contrary
• to the contrary

• (logic): subcontrary

contrary (third-person singular simple present contraries, present participle contrarying, simple past and past participle contraried)

1. (obsolete) To oppose; to frustrate.
   • Bishop Latimer

     I was advised not to contrary the king.

   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 47, in The Essayes, […], book I, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     The Athenians having left the enemie in their owne land, for to pass into Sicilie, had very ill successe, and were much contraried by fortune […].

2. (obsolete) To impugn.
3. (obsolete) To contradict (someone or something).
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter lxxvij, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:

     thus wilfully sir Palomydes dyd bataille with yow / & as for hym sir I was not gretely aferd but I dred fore laūcelot that knew yow not / Madame said Palomydes ye maye saye what so ye wyll / I maye not contrary yow but by my knyghthode I knewe not sir Tristram

   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     I finde them everie one in his turne to have reason, although they contrary one another.

4. (obsolete) To do the opposite of (someone or something).
5. (obsolete) To act inconsistently or perversely; to act in opposition to.
6. (obsolete) To argue; to debate; to uphold an opposite opinion.
7. (obsolete) To be self-contradictory; to become reversed.

• contra
• counter

• contrary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• contrary in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• contrary at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “contrary” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8.