deny

verb

1. 1

   To disallow or reject.

   I wanted to go to the party, but I was denied.

   '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.

   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.

2. 2

   To assert that something is not true.

   to deny a rumour to deny an allegation

   I deny that I was at the party.

   Everyone knows he committed the crime, but he still denies it.

   [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, […]

3. 3

   To refuse to give or grant something to someone.

   My father denied me a good education.

   To some men, it is more agreeable to deny a vicious inclination, than to gratify it.

   A mother who urgently needs a kidney transplant has branded the system which denied her the organs of her dying daughter as "ridiculous".

4. 4

   To take something away from someone; to deprive of.

5. 5

   To prevent from scoring.

   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. 6

   To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, etc.; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow.

   Jesus prophesied that by the time the cock crowed, Peter would have denied him three times.

   the falsehood of denying his opinion

   thou thrice denied, yet thrice beloved

   Permission to leave these confines has only been granted on the conditions that we deny ourselves and blend in with the Straight Monolith

7. 7

   obsoleteTo refuse (to do or accept something).

   if you deny to dance

Forms

past tense

denied

past participle

denied

present participle

denying

third person singular

denies