Dictionary

repudiate en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• rĭ-pyoo͞′dē-āt″

Etymology

First attested in 1543; from Latin repudiātus, the perfect passive participle of repudiō (“to cast off, reject”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from repudium (“rejection, repudiation, divorce”).

Meanings

1. (as a participle, obsolete, of a woman) Repudiated by a husband, divorced.
2. (obsolete, of a woman) Repudiated after betrothal or engagement.
3. (obsolete, qualifier:generally) Set aside, rejected.

Forms

repudiate en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• rĭ-pyoo͞′dē-āt″

Etymology

First attested in 1543; from Latin repudiātus, the perfect passive participle of repudiō (“to cast off, reject”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from repudium (“rejection, repudiation, divorce”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A divorced wife.

Forms

repudiate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ɹɪˈpjuː.di.eɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation, US)
• /ɹəˈpjuː.di.eɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation, US)
• (US) audio
• rĭ-pyoo͞′dē-āt″
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

First attested in 1543; from Latin repudiātus, the perfect passive participle of repudiō (“to cast off, reject”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from repudium (“rejection, repudiation, divorce”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To reject the truth or validity of; to deny.
   • The fierce willingness to repudiate domination in a holistic manner is the starting point for progressive cultural revolution. 2012, Bell Hooks, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations:
2. (transitive) To refuse to have any relation to; to disown.
   • Chaucer […] not only came to doubt the worth of his extraordinary body of work, but repudiated it. (Can we date this quote?), Joyce Carol Oates, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
   • I disagreed completely—and still do—with President Nixon's initiative to "normalize" relations with the People's Republic of China. The American people—against the will of the majority, if the polls are correct—have been forced to go along with the Carter administration's decision to repudiate our mutual defense treaty with the free Chinese regime on Taiwan, and to give Peking the diplomatic and economic muscle to seriously impair the security and prosperity of the seventeen million people on the island. This is a strange way to reward a loyal ally whose hardworking and creative citizens have made their country a model success story for the capitalistic free-enterprise system. 1980, Spiro Agnew, Go Quietly . . . Or Else, New York: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 34:
   • The seventeenth century sometimes seems for more than a moment to gather up and to digest into its art all the experience of the human mind which (from the same point of view) the later centuries seem to have been partly engaged in repudiating. 1921, T. S. Eliot, “Andrew Marvell”, in The Times Literary Supplement:
   • If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America. 1965, Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice:
   • It was not enough just to shoot the Old Bolsheviks; Stalin had to have the show trials. He had to demonstrate publicly that these men of enormous energy and spirit were so utterly broken as to openly repudiate themselves and all they had fought for. 1976, Terrence Des Pres, “Excremental Assault”, in The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps, page 60:
3. (transitive) To refuse to pay or honor (a debt).
   • '[…] she dictated to Briggs a furious answer in her own native tongue, repudiating Mrs. Rawdon Crawley altogether […]' 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 34, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
4. (intransitive) To be repudiated.

Forms

Antonyms

own up · requite · accept

Deriveds

repudiation · refudiate · repudiative · repudiator · repudiatory

Hypernyms

refuse · reject

Hyponyms

recant

Relateds

swear off · cast off

Synonyms

forsay · deny · abjure · disavow · disclaim · disown · gainsay · repudiate · refudiate · contradict · renounce · disavow · welsh · wash one's hands of · deny · forswear · forswear

Translations (49)

fi sanoutua irti (to refuse to have anything to do with) · ru отрека́ться (to refuse to have anything to do with) · ar تَبَرَّأَ (to refuse to have anything to do with) · fr répudier (to reject the truth of, deny) · de zurückweisen (to reject the truth of, deny) · fr nier (to reject the truth of, deny) · es repudiar (to refuse to have anything to do with) · el αποκηρύσσω (to reject the truth of, deny) · fi kieltäytyä olemasta missään tekemisissä (to refuse to have anything to do with) · fi kieltäytyä maksamasta (to refuse to pay a debt) · mk о́дбие (to refuse to have anything to do with) · hu visszautasít (to reject the truth of, deny) · es desconocer (to refuse to have anything to do with) · hu tagad (to refuse to have anything to do with) · ar رَفَضَ (to reject the truth of, deny) · la negō (to reject the truth of, deny) · eo malagnoski (to reject the truth of, deny) · de abstreiten (to reject the truth of, deny) · bg отричам (to reject the truth of, deny) · de leugnen (to reject the truth of, deny) · pl odrzucić (to reject the truth of, deny) · fi sanoutua irti (to reject the truth of, deny) · de sich verweigern (to refuse to have anything to do with) · mi whākorekore (to reject the truth of, deny) · no fornekte (to reject the truth of, deny) · pl wyprzeć się (to refuse to have anything to do with) · mi whakakore (to reject the truth of, deny) · tr yalanlamak (to reject the truth of, deny) · bg отричам се (to refuse to have anything to do with) · de verleugnen (to refuse to have anything to do with) · nl ontkennen (to reject the truth of, deny) · fi kieltää (to reject the truth of, deny) · hy ժխտել (to reject the truth of, deny) · es repudiar (to reject the truth of, deny) · mk се о́ткаже (to refuse to have anything to do with) · tr inkâr etmek (to refuse to have anything to do with) · mi whawhati (to reject the truth of, deny) · ru отверга́ть (to reject the truth of, deny) · mk о́тфрли (to reject the truth of, deny) · de verleugnen (to reject the truth of, deny) · de zurückweisen (to refuse to have anything to do with) · la repudiō (to refuse to have anything to do with) · de verstoßen (to refuse to have anything to do with) · de sich distanzieren (to refuse to have anything to do with) · tr reddetmek (to reject the truth of, deny) · pl wyrzec się (to refuse to have anything to do with) · hu tagad (to reject the truth of, deny) · mk о́дбие (to reject the truth of, deny) · el απορρίπτω (to refuse to have anything to do with)