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Deny vs Cancel - What's the difference?

deny | cancel |

In transitive terms the difference between deny and cancel

is that deny is to refuse to give or grant something to someone while cancel is to offset or equalize something.

In obsolete terms the difference between deny and cancel

is that deny is to refuse (to do or accept something) while cancel is an inclosure; a boundary; a limit.

As a noun cancel is

a cancellation (US); (nonstandard in some kinds of English).

deny

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=November 1 , author=James Robinson and Lisa O'Carroll , title=Phone hacking: NoW warned about 'culture of illegal information access' , work=The Guardian citation , page= , passage=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. }}
  • To disallow
  • to refuse to give or grant something to someone
  • My father denied me a good education.
  • * J. Edwards
  • To some men, it is more agreeable to deny a vicious inclination, than to gratify it.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2008 , date=April 12 , author= , title=Mother denied daughter's organs , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=A mother who urgently needs a kidney transplant has branded the system which denied her the organs of her dying daughter as "ridiculous".}}
  • (sports) To prevent from scoring.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=November 3 , author=Chris Bevan , title=Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=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.}}
  • To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, etc.; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow.
  • * Bancroft
  • the falsehood of denying his opinion
  • * Keble
  • thou thrice denied , yet thrice beloved
  • (obsolete) To refuse (to do or accept something).
  • * Shakespeare
  • if you deny to dance

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Synonyms

    (assert something is not true) gainsay, contradict, withsay

    Antonyms

    (not allow) allow (assert something is true) confirm, affirm

    Derived terms

    * deniability * denier

    cancel

    English

    Alternative forms

    * cancell (obsolete)

    Verb

  • To cross out something with lines etc.
  • * Blackstone
  • A deed may be avoided by delivering it up to be cancelled ; that is, to have lines drawn over it in the form of latticework or cancelli; the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it.
  • To invalidate or annul something.
  • He cancelled his order on their website.
  • * 1914 , (Marjorie Benton Cooke), Bambi
  • *:"I don't know what your agreement was, Herr Professor, but if it had money in it, cancel it. I want him to learn that lesson, too."
  • To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it can't be reused.
  • This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.
  • To offset or equalize something.
  • The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.
  • (mathematics) To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
  • (media) To stop production of a programme.
  • (printing, dated) To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
  • (obsolete) To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
  • * Milton
  • cancelled from heaven
  • (slang) To kill.
  • Synonyms

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cancellation (US ); (nonstandard in some kinds of English).
  • # (Internet) A control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.
  • (obsolete) An inclosure; a boundary; a limit.
  • A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spiritdesires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body. — Jeremy Taylor.
  • (printing) The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.