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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
disavow
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The bus drivers' union has disavowed any involvement in the violence.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Acknowledging the confusion, the Supreme Court in 1990 disavowed its earlier opinions and announced a new approach.
▪ Barbara was subjected to heinous torture, yet refused to disavow her faith.
▪ But the government is unlikely to press ahead with what the Academy has disavowed.
▪ Could he disavow his father and live?
▪ Ten federal researchers were listed as contributors, but seven of them quickly disavowed any connection with it.
▪ We saw too the marked trend to disavow deviance amongst the women whose personal histories are discussed in Chapter 2.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Disavow

Disavow \Dis`a*vow"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Disavowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Disavowing.] [F. d['e]savouer; pref. d['e]s- (L. dis-) + avouer to avow. See Avow, and cf. Disavouch.]

  1. To refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, and the like; to disclaim; to disown; as, he was charged with embezzlement, but he disavows the crime.

    A solemn promise made and disavowed.
    --Dryden.

  2. To deny; to show the contrary of; to disprove.

    Yet can they never Toss into air the freedom of my birth, Or disavow my blood Plantagenet's.
    --Ford.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
disavow

late 14c., from Old French desavouer (13c.), from des- "opposite of" (see dis-) + avouer (see avow). Related: Disavowed; disavowing.

Wiktionary
disavow

vb. 1 To refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, and the like; to disclaim; to disown. 2 To deny; to show the contrary of; to disprove.

WordNet
disavow

v. refuse to acknowledge; disclaim knowledge of; responsibility for, or association with; "Her husband disavowed her after 30 years of marriage and six children" [ant: avow]

Usage examples of "disavow".

Court of Vienna disavowed them, and Duroc, whom Bonaparte sent to convey the preliminaries to Vienna for the Imperial ratification, was not permitted to pass the Austrian advance poets.

Should any of the ships involved in the attack on Gijon be sunk or run aground or prized, should any of the soldiers or crewmen or nobles be captured, they were completely on their own and King Arthur would disavow any slightest knowledge of them and their nefarious ventures into kingdoms with which the Crown was at peace.

Tuttle that you suddenly disavowed this portion of your statement, where you said that Hardcore told you this was being done for Nile?

The Nietzschean affirmative, forgetful of the original negative, disavows rebellion at the same time that it disavows the ethic that refuses to accept the world as it is.

Munoz and his Cuban gang disavow the worst stuff, but they know how the Sunbelt is going.

Temple of Lims-Kragma disavowed themselves from any contact with these Nighthawks years ago, and the Temple of Guis-Wa have their own particular brand of murders, and these murders have none of the earmarks of a ritual Blood Hunt.

He could not disavow his actions, belauded as they were by half the world, and so he had to repudiate truth, goodness, and all humanity.

I am far from disavowing this evidence of my esteem for your daughter, but to justify myself I am obliged to tell you a fact which I should have otherwise kept secret--namely, that I furnished your daughter with this sum to enable her to pay your son's debts, for which he thanked me in a letter which I can shew you.

Then, thinking over the orders I gave him, he came to the conclusion that on finding myself diseased afterwards I was disgusted, and being able to disavow my presence I had done so for the sake of revenge.

Because it exhibits a body of men, numbers of whom disavow the publishing political testimonies, as being concerned therein and approvers thereof.

Secondly, Because it exhibits a body of men, numbers of whom disavow the publishing political testimonies, as being concerned therein and approvers thereof.

Their Platonising successors indeed, in after times, in order to legitimate the corruptions which they had incorporated into the doctrines of Jesus, found it necessary to disavow the primitive Christians, who had taken their principles from the mouth of Jesus himself, of his Apostles, and the Fathers cotemporary with them.

That we grossly exceeded our authority, and that she disavows everything we've done.

But we shall not be disavowed by the nation, and their act of indemnity will confirm &amp.

But the reborn Sha'ik had delved deep into the man's soul, and found it empty, bereft of faith, by some flaw of nature inclined to disavow all forms of certainty.