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Relinquish vs Spurn - What's the difference?

relinquish | spurn |

In lang=en terms the difference between relinquish and spurn

is that relinquish is to accept to give up, withdraw etc while spurn is to waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity).

As verbs the difference between relinquish and spurn

is that relinquish is to give up, abandon or retire from something while spurn is (ambitransitive) to reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.

As a noun spurn is

an act of spurning; a scornful rejection.

relinquish

English

Verb

(es)
  • To give up, abandon or retire from something.
    • to relinquish a title
    to relinquish property
    to relinquish rights
    to relinquish citizenship or nationality
  • To let go (free, away), physically release.
  • To metaphorically surrender, yield control or possession.
  • * 2011 , Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/15210221.stm]
    • But it was the most fleeting of false dawns. Dmitri Yachvilli slotted a penalty from distance after Flood failed to release his man on the deck, and France took a grip they would never relinquish .
  • To accept to give up, withdraw etc.
    • ''The delegations saved the negotiations by relinquishing their incompatible claims to sole jurisdiction

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    Related terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    External links

    * *

    spurn

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
  • * Shakespeare
    • to spurn at your most royal image
  • * Shakespeare
    • What safe and nicely I might well delay / By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn .
  • * John Locke
    • Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet.
  • To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.
  • To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 28 , author=Tom Rostance , title=Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.}}
  • (obsolete) To kick or toss up the heels.
  • * Chaucer
    • The miller spurned at a stone.
  • * Gay
    • The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns .

    Derived terms

    * spurner

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
  • A kick; a blow with the foot.
  • * Milton
    • What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn ?
  • (obsolete) Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The insolence of office and the spurns / That patient merit of the unworthy takes.
  • A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.