deny
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Old French denoier (“to deny, to repudiate”) (French dénier), from Latin denegare (“to deny, to refuse”), from de- (“away”) and negare (“to refuse”), the latter ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ne (“no, not”).
Pronunciation [edit]
Verb [edit]
deny (third-person singular simple present denies, present participle denying, simple past and past participle denied)
- (transitive) To not allow.
- I wanted to go to the party, but I was denied.
- 1847, Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey Chapter XVI
- 'Do! pray do! I shall be the most miserable of men if you don't. You cannot be so cruel as to deny me a favour so easily granted and yet so highly prized!' pleaded he as ardently as if his life depended on it.
- (transitive) To assert that something is not true.
- I deny that I was at the party.
- Everyone knows he committed the crime, but he still denies it.
- 2011 November 1, James Robinson and Lisa O'Carroll, “Phone hacking: NoW warned about 'culture of illegal information access'”, The Guardian:
- But Myler and Crone told the committee in September that they had made Murdoch aware at the 10 June 2008 meeting that hacking was not restricted to a single journalist. They claimed this was the reason Murdoch agreed to settle the Taylor's case. James Murdoch subsequently wrote to the committee to deny this.
- (transitive) To disallow
- (transitive) to refuse to give or grant something to someone
- My father denied me a good education
- 2008 April 12, “Mother denied daughter's organs”, BBC:
- A mother who urgently needs a kidney transplant has branded the system which denied her the organs of her dying daughter as "ridiculous".
- (sports, transitive) To prevent from scoring.
- 2011 November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, BBC Sport:
- Another Karadeniz cross led to Cudicini's first save of the night, with the Spurs keeper making up for a weak punch by brilliantly pushing away Christian Noboa's snap-shot.
Two more top-class stops followed quickly afterwards, first from Natcho's rasping shot which was heading into the top corner, and then to deny Ryazantsev at his near post.
- Another Karadeniz cross led to Cudicini's first save of the night, with the Spurs keeper making up for a weak punch by brilliantly pushing away Christian Noboa's snap-shot.
- 2011 November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, BBC Sport:
Usage notes [edit]
- This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Synonyms [edit]
(assert something is not true): gainsay, contradict, withsay
Antonyms [edit]
(not allow): allow (assert something is true): confirm, affirm
Related terms [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to not allow
to assert that something is not true
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