gainsay
/ɡeɪnˈseɪ
/verb (past and past participle gainsaid /ɡeɪnˈsed/) [with object, with negative] formal
1Deny or contradict (a fact or statement): the impact of the railways cannot be gainsaid...
- I'm not denying or gainsaying the fact that one could make a case.
- These revisionists could not of course ultimately gainsay the fact that France was defeated.
- In an era in which the very power of national governments of reformist pedigree to deliver reforms is under question, Labour gainsays the question.
Synonyms
deny, dispute, disagree with, argue with, dissent from, contradict, repudiate, declare untrue, challenge, oppose, contest, counter, fly in the face of;
disprove, debunk, explode, discredit, refute, rebut, brush aside
informal shoot full of holes, shoot down (in flames)
Law disaffirm
rare controvert, confute
1.1Speak against or oppose (someone): none could gainsay her...
- My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me.
- He had a hot temper and a weekly column in which he could publicly tear to shreds anyone who dared gainsay him or meddle with his works.
- The extremist can always argue that he is the better Muslim that the moderate - and no one can gainsay him.
Derivatives
gainsayer
- The Pope's funeral illustrated just how important religion still is to us all, whatever the gainsayers would have you believe
- And with God as his ally, he can face the multitude of enemies and gainsayers who threaten him everywhere.
- The phlegmatic attitude of continental Europeans to the euro puts British gainsayers to shame
Origin
Middle English: from obsolete gain- 'against' + say.