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Webster 1913 Edition

Deny

De-ny′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Denied
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Denying
.]
[OE.
denien
,
denaien
, OF.
denier
,
deneer
, F.
dénier
, fr. L.
denegare
;
de-
+
negare
to say no, deny. See
Negation
.]
1.
To declare not to be true; to gainsay; to contradict; – opposed to affirm, allow, or admit.
☞ We deny what another says, or we deny the truth of an assertion, the force of it, or the assertion itself.
2.
To refuse (to do something or to accept something); to reject; to decline; to renounce.
[Obs.]
“If you deny to dance.”
Shak.
3.
To refuse to grant; to withhold; to refuse to gratify or yield to;
as, to
deny
a request
.
Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what
denies
?
Pope.
To some men, it is more agreeable to
deny
a vicious inclination, than to gratify it.
J. Edwards.
4.
To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, and the like; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow.
The falsehood of
denying
his opinion.
Bancroft.
Thou thrice
denied
, yet thrice beloved.
Keble.
To deny one’s self
,
to decline the gratification of appetites or desires; to practice self-denial.
Let him
deny
himself, and take up his cross.
Matt. xvi. 24.

De-ny′

,
Verb.
I.
To answer in [GREEK][GREEK][GREEK] negative; to declare an assertion not to be true.
Then Sarah
denied
, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid.
Gen. xviii. 15.

Webster 1828 Edition

Deny

DENY

, v.t.
1.
To contradict; to gainsay; to declare a statement or position not to be true. We deny what another says, or we deny a proposition. We deny the truth of an assertion, or the assertion itself. The sense of this verb is often expressed by no or nay.
2.
To refuse to grant; as, we asked for bread, and the man denied us.
3.
Not to afford; to withhold.
Who find not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?
4.
To disown; to refuse or neglect to acknowledge; not to confess.

Definition 2024

deny

deny

English

Verb

deny ‎(third-person singular simple present denies, present participle denying, simple past and past participle denied)

  1. (transitive) 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.
  2. (transitive) 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.
    • 2011 November 1, James Robinson and Lisa O'Carroll, “Phone hacking: NoW warned about 'culture of illegal information access'”, in The Guardian:
      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.
  3. (transitive) To disallow
  4. (transitive) 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.
    • 2008 April 12, “Mother denied daughter's organs”, in BBC:
      A mother who urgently needs a kidney transplant has branded the system which denied her the organs of her dying daughter as "ridiculous".
  5. (sports, transitive) To prevent from scoring.
    • 2011 November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport:
      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.
  6. 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
  7. (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 Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related terms

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Etymology

Borrowing 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 *ne ‎(“no, not”).

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /dɪˈnaɪ/
  • Rhymes: -aɪ

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