When it's used to describe a process it can be a physical kind of analogy: - "to push your hand against a wall" - "to press a grinder against some metal" - "

When it's used to describe a process it can be a physical kind of analogy: - "to push your hand against a wall" - "to press a grinder against some metal" - "to push a mold against the clay" There's a Newton's third law kind-of thing going on, where two things push against each other, and affect each other. For "to program against a standard" I am imagining some malleable computer code being pushed against an unyielding form or mold until it conforms to the intended shape (i.e. standard). A similar deal as TDD (test-driven development). It seems to me that the second and third examples are forms of "compare with and contrast against" the latter being the "relationship of opposition" you mention. Thinking aloud, "to file an issue against a repository" grammatically resembles "to file a lawsuit against a person" and is similar in that you are registering a complaint against some problem.