contravene

Updated: June 17, 2025

He had also refused because the old oath enjoined him to protect the rights and privileges of the country, but he could not tell whether this new one might not impose upon him duties which would contravene the first; because, too, the clause which bound him to serve, if required, against all without distinction, did not except even the emperor, his feudal lord, against whom, however, he, as his vassal, could not conscientiously make war.

Friedrich Schiller - History of the Revolt of the Netherlands — Complete

My brother related to me the circumstances of the death of my father, over which he affected to shed tears. He then produced his testament for my inspection, pretended to blame me that though I were the elder, I had so little ingratiated myself in his favour, and added, that he could not think of being guilty of so undutiful a conduct, as to contravene the last dispositions of his father.

William Godwin - Italian Letters, Vols. I and II: The History of the Count de St. Julian

Moreover, I do not scruple to confess to you that I am not so bigoted in my adhesion to the dogmas of political economy, as to be unwilling, at a season of crisis like the present, to entertain proposals for accelerating this result, merely because they contravene the principles of that science.

Eighth Earl of Elgin James - Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

Here we have the other method of making the past a living reality; for historical data subjective fancies are substituted, whose merit is measured by their boldness that is, the scantiness of the particulars on which they are based and the peremptoriness with which they contravene the best established facts of history.

Various - The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 07 : Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes

It is doubtless perfectly true that acquaintance with military and naval history, mastery of their teachings, will go far to anticipate the penalty attaching to truth's last argument chastisement; but imagination is fondly impatient of warning by the past, and easily avails itself of fancied or superficial differences in contemporary conditions, to justify measures which ignore, or even directly contravene, ascertained and fundamental principles of universal application.

A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan - Types of Naval Officers: Drawn from the History of the British Navy

He had also refused because the old oath enjoined him to protect the rights and privileges of the country, but he could not tell whether this new one might not impose upon him duties which would contravene the first; because, too, the clause which bound him to serve, if required, against all without distinction, did not except even the emperor, his feudal lord, against whom, however, he, as his vassal, could not conscientiously make war.

Friedrich Schiller - The Works of Frederich Schiller

'No, he said, 'beyond hesitation, PROCUL DUBIO, many females, as worthy as Rose, had been excluded, in order to make way for my own succession, and Heaven forbid that I should do aught that might contravene the destination of my forefathers, or impinge upon the right of my kinsman, Malcolm Bradwardine of Inchgrabbit, an honourable though decayed branch of my own family.

Sir Walter Scott - Waverley: or, 'Tis sixty years since

The annexation of such districts by Italy, the experts agreed, would contravene directly the right of self-determination and might lead to serious difficulties in the future. Would the President sanction the application of treaties consummated without the knowledge of the United States and in defiance of the principles upon which he had declared that peace must be made?

Charles Seymour - Woodrow Wilson and the World War: A Chronicle of Our Own Times.

But what galled him to the soul, was the bitter reflection that he did not, on perceiving its advantage to Fenton, at once destroy it tear it up eat it swallow it and thus render it utterly impossible to ever contravene his ambition or his crimes. In the meantime slumber stole upon him, but it was neither deep nor refreshing. His mind was a chaos of dark projects and frightful images.

William Carleton - The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain: The Works of William Carleton, Volume One

Fifthly, To have each branch invested with power to originate acts; to give the national legislature the right to legislate in all cases where the state governments might be incompetent, or in which the harmony of the confederation might be interrupted by the exercise of individual legislation; to negative all laws passed by the individual states that might contravene the articles of union; and to call forth the whole Union against any member of the confederation that should fail to fulfil its stipulated duty.

Benson John Lossing - Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3.