Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To declare untrue; assert to be false.
  • transitive verb To refuse to believe; reject.
  • transitive verb To refuse to recognize or acknowledge; disavow.
  • transitive verb To decline to grant or allow; refuse.
  • transitive verb To give a refusal to; turn down or away.
  • transitive verb To restrain (oneself) especially from indulgence in pleasures.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To say “no” or “nay” to; gainsay; contradict.
  • To declare to be untrue or untenable; reject as false or erroneous; refuse to admit, accept, or believe: as, to deny an accusation, or the truth of a statement or a theory; to deny a, doctrine.
  • To refuse; refuse to grant or give; withhold or withhold from: as, to deny bread to the hungry; to deny a request.
  • To reject as non-existent or unreal; refuse to believe in the existence of; disallow the reality of.
  • To refuse access to; keep from being seen; withhold from view or intercourse: as, he denied himself to visitors.
  • To refuse to acknowledge; disavow; renounce; disown.
  • To forbid.
  • To contradict; repel; disprove.
  • Synonyms To disclaim, renounce, abjure.
  • To answer in the negative; refuse to comply.
  • noun Denial.

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

  • intransitive verb To answer in ��� negative; to declare an assertion not to be true.
  • transitive verb To declare not to be true; to gainsay; to contradict; -- opposed to affirm, allow, or admit.
  • transitive verb obsolete To refuse (to do something or to accept something); to reject; to decline; to renounce.
  • transitive verb To refuse to grant; to withhold; to refuse to gratify or yield to.
  • transitive verb To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, and the like; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow.
  • transitive verb to decline the gratification of appetites or desires; to practice self-denial.

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

  • verb transitive To not allow.
  • verb transitive To assert that something is not true.
  • verb transitive To disallow
  • verb transitive to refuse to give or grant something to someone
  • verb sports, transitive To prevent from scoring.

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

  • verb refuse to let have
  • verb deny oneself (something); restrain, especially from indulging in some pleasure
  • verb refuse to recognize or acknowledge
  • verb declare untrue; contradict
  • verb refuse to grant, as of a petition or request
  • verb refuse to accept or believe
  • verb deny formally (an allegation of fact by the opposing party) in a legal suit

Etymologies

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

[Middle English denien, from Old French denier, from Latin dēnegāre : dē-, de- + negāre, to say no; see ne in Indo-European roots.]

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