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Indulge vs Deny - What's the difference?

indulge | deny |

In lang=en terms the difference between indulge and deny

is that indulge is to satisfy the wishes or whims of while deny is to refuse to give or grant something to someone.

As verbs the difference between indulge and deny

is that indulge is : to yield to a temptation or desire while deny is to not allow.

indulge

English

Verb

(indulg)
  • : To yield to a temptation or desire.
  • He looked at the chocolate but didn't indulge .
    I indulged in drinking on the weekend.
  • To satisfy the wishes or whims of.
  • Grandma indulges the kids with sweets.
    I love to indulge myself with beautiful clothes.
  • * Atterbury
  • Hope in another life implies that we indulge ourselves in the gratifications of this very sparingly.
  • To give way to (a habit or temptation); not to oppose or restrain.
  • to indulge sloth, pride, selfishness, or inclinations
  • To grant an extension to the deadline of a payment.
  • To grant as by favour; to bestow in concession, or in compliance with a wish or request.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • persuading us that something must be indulged to public manners
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Yet, yet a moment, one dim ray of light / Indulge , dread Chaos, and eternal Night!

    Synonyms

    * (to satisfy the wishes of) coddle, cosset, pamper, spoil * See also

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    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