Obs. Also countre-, countir-, -taille, -taile, -tayle. [a. OF. contretaille the opposite half or duplicate of a tally: cf. next.]
1. The opposite half of a tally; a tally or score kept to check another.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 71. Þi reckenyng bi tyme bisili þou make, Or þe deuel bringe þe countirtaile.
a. 1500. Piers of Fullham, 204, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 9. Hys paymentes ben scored on the countertayle.
1570. Levins, Manip., 199/11. A countretayle, anticopa.
1617. [see COUNTERTALLY].
2. A counter-stroke.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, VI. iii. (1554), 149 b. Agayn the malice, to make a countertaile Of proude Silla, the malice eft tassayle.
1436. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 174. The countertayles Of oure enmyes.
3. At the countertail: in reply, in retort.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 1134. Folweth Ekko that holdeth no silence, But euere answereth at the countretaille.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (1840), 130. Alweys at the Countretaile Theyr [wives] tunge clappithe and dothe hewe.
