spurn
/spəːn
/verb [with object]
1Reject with disdain or contempt: he spoke gruffly, as if afraid that his invitation would be spurned...
- In spurning the invitation by Government to discuss the matter, the union leaders have lost an opportunity to find an answer to their grievances without causing disruption to the system.
- Arun is a sensitive young man from the capital who spurns a comfortable inheritance and takes a job teaching in a rural elementary school, in the very heartland of the insurgency.
- Based on the French novella by Prosper Merimee and the popular opera by Georges Bizet, Carmen is the story of a fiery Spanish gypsy who spurns her obsessive soldier lover for a flashy bullfighter.
Synonyms
refuse, decline, say no to, reject, rebuff, scorn, turn down, turn away, repudiate, treat with contempt, disdain, look down one's nose at, despise;
snub, slight, disown, jilt, repulse, repel, dismiss, brush off, turn one's back on;
give someone the cold shoulder, cold-shoulder, ignore, cut (dead), look right through
informal turn one's nose up at, give someone the brush-off, tell someone where to get off, put down, freeze out, stiff-arm, kick in the teeth
British informal knock back
North American informal give someone the bum's rush, give someone the brush
Australian informal snout
informal, dated give someone the go-by
1.1 archaic Strike, tread, or push away with the foot: with one touch of my feet, I spurn the solid Earth...
- She threw the money down upon the ground, and spurned it with her foot.
noun archaic
An act of spurning: it is a spurn of God’s sovereignty, and a slight of his goodness
Derivatives
spurner
- But it is not only to the spurners of the Gospel that such verses are addressed.
- Indeed, the longer one looks at this week's fascinating list of the 300 spurners of official honours, the clearer it becomes that not all these refuseniks were motivated by the modesty or principle that the unwary among us may attribute to them.
Origin
Old English spurnan, spornan; related to Latin spernere 'to scorn'; compare with spur.