against
- 1Opposed to a person, plan or idea, or actively working to defeat or prevent it. The opposite is for.
He campaigned against the company for ten years.
I'd bet against them finishing on time.
UsageOften be against something or against + -ing; it can stand alone, as in ten for, three against.
Oppositefor
Note
Opposition as a stance covers everything from a private opinion to a ten-year campaign. It is the meaning the word was built for. Middle English ayenes already meant "in opposition to."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Middle English ayenes meant “in opposition to.” en.wiktionary.org
- 2Competing with someone as an opponent in a game, race, election or fight, the sense that a match report means by versus.
She is running against two longtime council members in the November election.
The team has not won against its local rivals in five years.
UsageIn sports, play against a team; in elections, run against someone.
Similarversus
- 3Touching or close beside a surface, especially leaning on it or supported by it.
The tired puppy fell asleep with its back pressed against the couch cushion.
She leaned her bike against the fence while she ran into the store.
UsageUsually with verbs of stillness: lean against, rest against, stand against a wall.
Similaron
Note
The sense also stretches to simple closeness without contact, as with a row of trees planted against a fence.
- 4Giving protection from something harmful, such as weather, disease or a danger that has not yet arrived.
Vaccines protect children against measles and other serious diseases.
The old farmhouse had heavy wooden shutters against the winter storms.
UsageOften protect against, protection against, a vaccine against a disease.
Note
Protection is named by its threat. What follows the preposition is the danger, never the shield: an umbrella against the wind, a remedy against fear and grief. In The Anatomy of Melancholy, Burton could call beauty "a sovereign remedy against fear." A 1988 paper raises monoclonal antibodies against particular proteins, so the same construction runs from old moral prose to the laboratory.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Robert Burton calls beauty "a sovereign remedy against fear" in The Anatomy of Melancholy. gutenberg.org
- A 1988 paper reports raising monoclonal antibodies against particular proteins. en.wiktionary.org
- 5Measured, judged or weighed in comparison with something else, so that a difference or standard becomes clear or one amount offsets another.
The small savings must be weighed against the cost of retraining every employee.
Critics evaluated the novel against a narrow political standard.
UsageOften weigh one thing against another, or check answers against a key.
Note
Here the word marks a yardstick: whatever follows it is the standard something is measured by. The word carries no hostility here, only a measure.
- 6In conflict with a rule, law, principle or signal, so that the action breaks or ignores it.
Accepting gifts from suppliers goes against company policy.
We crossed against the red light because no car was in sight.
UsageOften against the law, against the rules, or go against a policy.
- 7
- 8Seen or shown with something as a background, so that one thing is outlined by the other behind it.
The city's towers stood out sharply against a backdrop of snowy mountains.
Dark birds moved against the pale morning sky.
UsageOften stand out against a background, or dark against the sky.
- 9
Less common meanings
- 10Moving or acting in the opposite direction to a flow, such as a current, a wind or a trend.
Salmon fight their way upstream against the river's flow to reach their spawning grounds.
The company grew against the trend of the whole market.
UsageOften against the current, against the wind, or against the trend.
Oppositewith
- 11In exchange for something, so that one thing is redeemed, credited or set off in return for another.
The old laptop was accepted as a trade-in against the cost of a new one.
The deposit will be credited against your final bill.
- 12In preparation for a future time or event, so that something is ready when that moment arrives.
Farmers stored grain and firewood against the long winter ahead.
She put a little money aside each month against the day the car would need repairs.
Similarfor
Note
Time is treated as something to get ready for: stores are stocked against a time of need, and young seals gather strength against the day they will fight. Its natural company is a noun of time, such as the day, the time or a coming journey. Florio's 1603 Montaigne uses it to render French pour, and Haggard and Jack London give it a storyteller's ring.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- John Florio's English translation of Montaigne's Essays was first published in 1603. en.wikipedia.org
- Florio uses against to translate French pour in the passage about preparing a feast. en.wiktionary.org
- H. Rider Haggard uses against in this preparatory sense in She, in Ayesha's dialogue. gutenberg.org
- Jack London's The Sea-Wolf describes young male seals gathering strength against the day they will fight. en.wikisource.org
- 13In betting, describing odds on which an outcome is less likely to happen than not. The opposite is on.
Few gamblers backed the outsider at twenty-to-one against, but it won by a length.
Bookmakers had the champion at evens and the challenger at six-to-one against.
UsageAfter the numbers, against can stand without an object: six-to-one against. Do not mix it up with odds on.
Oppositeon
Note
The figures compare the chances against the outcome with the chances for it: 3 to 1 against means it should fail three times for every once it comes off. So the larger the first number is relative to the second, the longer the chance.
- 14In film deals, joining a smaller sum paid up front to a larger total that includes it, with the balance due only if the movie is made or starts filming.
Her agent negotiated $40,000 against $250,000, with the balance due on the first day of shooting.
The studio bought the script for $50,000 against $400,000, with the rest due when filming starts.
Note
A Hollywood dealmaker's shorthand: two figures joined by the word, the first paid now and the second the full total, with the balance owed only if the picture goes ahead. A writer might take a $35,000 option against $100,000 if the movie is made. Read it as small money now and the rest of a larger total later. That structure keeps the studio's risk small if filming never starts.
- 15Exposed to something such as weather or danger, without protection from it.
Note
A lost meaning that pointed the opposite way from the protective sense. There the preposition names what one is shielded from; here it named what one lay open to. Only the protective reading lives on. A modern reader meeting this use should think exposure, not defense, and a modern writer should simply say exposed to.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- An obsolete sense of 'against' means 'exposed to'. en.wiktionary.org
- The protective sense means protection from something, contrasting with exposure to it. en.wiktionary.org
- 16By the time that something happens, or in readiness for the moment when it does.
He now gave Mrs Deborah positive orders to take the child to her own bed, and to call up a maid-servant to provide it pap, and other things, against it waked.
1749, Henry Fielding, Tom JonesThence she them brought into a stately Hall, / Wherein were many tables faire dispred, / And ready dight with drapets festiuall, / Against the viaundes should be ministred.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneNote
Spenser in 1590 has tables dressed "against the viands should be ministred." Fielding in 1749 has pap prepared "against it waked." Both carry readiness, not just sequence. It is the preparing-for preposition stretched to take a whole clause.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Spenser's passage was first published in 1590, in Book II of The Faerie Queene. en.wikisource.org
- The first edition reads “Against the viaundes should be ministred.” The item silently modernizes “viaundes” to “viands”. en.wikisource.org
- Fielding's example belongs to a work first published in 1749. en.wikisource.org
- Fielding's narration describes pap being provided “against it waked”. gutenberg.org
- The Spenser example describes tables made ready before food is served, supporting the readiness interpretation. en.wikisource.org
- The readiness meaning can introduce a complete clause. en.wikisource.org
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
This comes from Middle English ayenes, agenes, or againes ('in opposition to'), a southern form of agen or directly from again, with an adverbial genitive -es ending. The extra -t was added around 1350, probably through confusion with the superlative ending -est. It is related to Dutch tegen, German gegen, and Icelandic gegn.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Against derives from the stated Middle English forms meaning “in opposition to”, with the stated southern-variant or direct-again alternatives. en.wiktionary.org
- The formation includes an adverbial genitive -es ending. en.wiktionary.org
- The additional -t dates to approximately 1350. en.wiktionary.org
- Confusion with superlative -est is given as the probable explanation for the additional -t. en.wiktionary.org
- Against is cognate with Dutch tegen, German gegen, and Icelandic gegn. en.wiktionary.org