controvert

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• I challenge Mr. Wilson to controvert anything I have said, or to name any trusts or any big business men who regulated, or in any shape or way controlled, or captured, the Government during my term as President. —  An Autobiography
• By no means uncivil to Maupertuis; though obliged to controvert him. —  History of Friedrich II of Prussia
• Mr. Mickle reminds me in this letter of a conversation, at dinner one day at Mr. Hoole's with Dr. Johnson, when Mr. Nicol the King's bookseller and I attempted to controvert the maxim, 'better that ten guilty should escape, than one innocent person suffer;' and were answered by Dr. Johnson with great power of reasoning and eloquence. —  Life Of Johnson
• And the proper synonym in the refusal sense, controvert, is not one that we are likely to have much success in promoting. —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 1
• It seems, I have been deceived; but I must be permitted to suggest, that men who persist in the renewal of assertions, without a single effort to controvert the proofs which have been adduced to demonstrate their fallacy, cannot have for their object the establishment of truth — which ought, exclusively, to influence the conduct of public characters, whether writers or orators. —  A Residence in France During the Years 1792 1793 1794 and 1795

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