Repudiate

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈpjuː.di.eɪt/

Definitions

1. To reject, refuse to accept, or deny the validity of something previously acknowledged or believed
2. To disavow, renounce, or cast off a previously accepted belief or agreement while asserting its invalidity
3. To reject or refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of a prior commitment or belief, demonstrating a complete disassociation

Etymology: Before it meant "reject as invalid," "repudiate" was a matter of marriage. The Latin "repudium" named the formal rejection or divorce of a spouse, and the verb "repudiō" extended that sense to casting off anything at all. English borrowed the word in the mid-1500s, when it still carried a strong flavour of breaking a bond, whether between husband and wife or between a person and a promise. The Latin root behind "repudium" is tied to "pudor," shame, and the implication is of a rejection that publicly disgraces the one cast aside. That moral weight faded in English. The verb came to be used for rejecting a claim, a debt, a treaty, or a doctrine, leaving behind the domestic setting while keeping its sense of a deliberate, formal refusal.

Synonyms: reject, deny, disavow, renounce, abjure

Antonyms: accept, embrace, acknowledge, support, endorse