counsel

Pluralcounsels (some meanings), counsel (some meanings)

Formscounsels

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Advice or guidance offered to help someone decide on a course of action.

   She sought her mentor's counsel before accepting the offer.

   The elder's counsel carried weight in every family decision.

   Similaradvice, guidance, direction, recommendation

   Note

   Advice moving in one direction, from the one who gives it to the one who takes it. Shakespeare sets it beside its near twin in The Two Gentlemen of Verona ("I like thy counsel; well hast thou advised"), and Tennyson's "ill counsel" shows how readily it takes a judging adjective. Give counsel is the natural phrasing. Leung Yuen-sang's 1990 history has an official who "gave counsel to his superiors."

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A lawyer, especially one engaged to present a case in court, as in the British titles King's Counsel (KC) and Queen's Counsel (QC).

   The court appointed counsel to represent the indigent defendant.

   Senior counsel advised the company throughout the merger dispute.

   Similarlawyer, barrister, attorney, advocate

   Note

   Here the noun names a person, and it behaves unusually. The plural can be counsel as well as counsels, and it often goes without an article: the court appointed counsel, senior counsel advised. The British titles King's Counsel and Queen's Counsel, shortened to KC and QC, keep the word in a formal title.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To advise someone, particularly in a professional capacity.

   The therapist counseled the couple through their difficulties.

   Career advisors counsel graduates on how to approach interviews.

   Similaradvise, guide, coach

   Note

   The verb came into English by its own route, through Old French conseiller, from Latin cōnsilior. Its forms split by spelling: American English writes counseled and counseling with one l, British English counselled and counselling with two. The object is the person helped, and the setting is often professional, such as a lawyer and a client or mental health professionals and their clients.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To recommend a particular course of action.

   Financial advisors counsel diversification to reduce risk.

   The committee counseled a delay until more data arrived.

   Similarrecommend, advise, urge, advocate

   Note

   Where the advising verb takes the person as its object, this one takes the advice itself: I would counsel prudence. The two constructions can meet. In Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys (2019), a man "counseled his daughter to resist the lure of hatred and bitterness," naming the person first and then the course urged on her.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The act of talking a matter over and trading advice, especially on a legal question.

   The board held counsel late into the night over the proposed merger.

   They sought counsel together before responding to the lawsuit.

   Similarconsultation, deliberation, discussion

   Note

   The oldest frame for the noun is a meeting of minds, and its Latin source makes that plain: cōnsilium, akin to cōnsulō, "take counsel, consult." The phrase take counsel still carries it. The King James Bible of 1611 has the chief priests and elders taking counsel against Jesus. Here counsel is something people do together, not something one person hands another. That one-way use is counsel as advice.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The exercise of careful, sound judgment in deciding how to act.

   He showed remarkable counsel in handling the crisis.

   Rashness ruled where counsel should have, and the expedition ran out of water within a week.

   Similarjudgment, prudence, wisdom, discretion

   Oppositerashness, imprudence

7. 7
   noununcountable

   A deliberate purpose or plan; one's settled intention or design.

   He kept his own counsel, revealing his intentions to no one.

   Their counsel was to wait until winter before advancing.

   Similarplan, purpose, intention, design

   Note

   The scheme a mind settles on, rather than advice passed to someone else. The King James Bible of 1611 uses it this way, in the singular and the plural: "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever," "The counsels of the wicked are deceit." There counsels are designs, good or bad. In older texts, a counsel can be a plot rather than a recommendation.

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