As a verb disavow
is to refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, and the like; to disclaim; to disown.
As a noun disavower is
one who disavows.
disavow
English
Verb
(
en verb)
To refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, and the like; to disclaim; to disown.
- He was charged with embezzlement, but he disavows the crime.
To deny; to show the contrary of; to disprove.
- Because of her dissatisfaction, she now disavows the merits of fascism.
Quotations
* 1809 —
*: These considerations not having restrained the British Government from disavowing the arrangement by virtue of which its orders in council were to be revoked, and the event authorizing the renewal of commercial intercourse having thus not taken place, it necessarily became a question of equal urgency and importance whether the act prohibiting that intercourse was not to be considered as remaining in legal force.
* 1884 —
*: In a still more obscure passage he now desires to disavow the Circular or aristocratic tendencies with which some critics have naturally credited him.
* 1901 — , ch 12
*: It came to me as an absolute, for a moment an overwhelming shock. It seemed as though it wasn't a face, as though it must needs be a mask, a horror, a deformity, that would presently be disavowed or explained.
Synonyms
* (to refuse to own) abjure, deny, disclaim, disown, reject
* (to deny or show the contrary of) deny, disprove, impugn, reject, repudiate
Antonyms
* (to refuse to own) accept, own up
* (to deny or show the contrary of) accept, prove
Related terms
* disavowal
* disavowed
Anagrams
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