Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To fail to carry out a promise or commitment.
  • intransitive verb Games To fail to follow suit in cards when able and required by the rules to do so.
  • intransitive verb To renounce; disown.
  • noun The act of reneging.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To deny; disown; renounce.
  • To deny.
  • In card-playing, to play a card that is not of the suit led (as is allowable in some games); also, by extension, to revoke. Also renig.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To deny; to disown.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To deny.
  • intransitive verb To fail to keep (a commitment or promise); -- often used with on.
  • intransitive verb (Card Playing), rare To revoke; to play a card that cannot legally be played according to the rules.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To break a promise or commitment; to go back on one's word.
  • verb intransitive In a card game, to break one's commitment to follow suit when capable.
  • verb transitive (archaic) To deny; to renounce

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fail to fulfill a promise or obligation
  • noun the mistake of not following suit when able to do so

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin renegāre, to deny; see renegade.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin renego, from nego ("deny"). Possibly influenced by renegotiate. See also renegade.

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Examples

  • The headline on the Republican Jewish Coalition's press release today [April 14, 2009] calls on President Obama to stop the "equivocating and flip-flopping" on the Durban II conference, and the release expresses concern that the president might "renege" on his promised boycott of the conference.

    Marc R. Stanley: Durban II: Stop Reading Between the Lines 2009

  • Mr. Cuomo said the New Orleans-based company agreed not to "renege" on its contract to pay $432 million to the New York Power Authority over the length of the revenue-sharing agreement, which runs through 2014.

    Entergy, New York Reach Deal 2008

  • After N-Data tried to "renege" on the original agreement, and tried to increase the royalty payment, the FTC decided to take action.

    Archive 2008-06-01 Peter Zura 2008

  • After N-Data tried to "renege" on the original agreement, and tried to increase the royalty payment, the FTC decided to take action.

    FTC Looking to Break Down "Patent Walls" For Standardized Technologies Peter Zura 2008

  • The government fears that Pfizer will "renege" on this undertaking, he said.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2007

  • Dictionaries state that "renege" means to go back on one's word and that "reneger" is the noun form of the word.

    Council Fails To Deal With Crime Nathaniel Livingston 2004

  • I mean, didn't you kind of renege on the agreement here?

    CNN Transcript May 16, 2002 2002

  • The colleague, a friend, told me he had been advised that "renege" was off-limits, especially in conversations involving African-Americans, because it suggested the outdated term "Negro."

    chicagotribune.com - 2010

  • The headline on the Republican Jewish Coalition's press release today [April 14, 2009] calls on President Obama to stop the "equivocating and flip-flopping" on the Durban II conference, and the release expresses concern that the president might "renege" on his promised boycott of the conference.

    NJDC Blog 2009

  • No, "renege" doesn't mean what you think it means.

    Yannone 2009

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