Deny Meaning
/dɪˈnaɪ/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo disallow or reject.
verbTo assert that something is not true.
Sentence Examples
Do you deny that you went there?
It is no use your trying to deny it.
It is impossible to deny that she has a great talent.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
None
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The suspect continued to ____ any involvement in the bank robbery despite the evidence.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Do you ____ that you went there?
Word Origin & History
From Middle English denyen, from Old French denoier (“to deny, to repudiate”) (French dénier), from Latin denegare (“to deny, to refuse”), from de- (“away”) and negare (“to refuse”), the latter ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *né (“no, not”). Doublet of denegate.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"'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."
— 1847, Anne Brontë, chapter XVI, in Agnes Grey:
"The proposition that foreigners may be depriving British workers of their cod is politically potent. […] This argument, of course, denies the long British history of overfishing and the fact that the dread Spanish supertrawlers, which are now so universally denounced, wre a British invention."
— 1997, Mark Kurlansky, Cod, page 209:
"[N]ow ſuch a liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, […]"
— 1604, Jeremy Corderoy, A Short Dialogve, wherein is Proved, that No Man can be Saved without Good VVorkes, 2nd edition, Oxford: Printed by Ioseph Barnes, and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Crowne, by Simon Waterson, →OCLC, page 40:
"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."
— 2011 November 1, James Robinson, Lisa O'Carroll, “Phone hacking: NoW warned about 'culture of illegal information access'”, in The Guardian:
"To some men, it is more agreeable to deny a vicious inclination, than to gratify it."
— 1754, Jonathan Edwards, An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions Respecting that Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The suspect continued to ____ any involvement in the bank robbery despite the evidence.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Do you ____ that you went there?