Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To refute, especially by offering opposing evidence or arguments, as in a legal case.
- v. To repel.
- v. To present opposing evidence or arguments.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To repel by force; rebuff; drive back.
- To thrust back or away, as by denial; refuse assent to; repel; reject.
- To repel by evidence or argument; bring counter-arguments against; refute, or strive to refute: much used in legal procedure.
- To withdraw: used reflexively.
- In law, to make an answer, as to a plaintiff's surrejoinder. Compare surrebut.
- In curling, to make a random stroke with great force, in the hope of gaining some advantage in the striking and displacement of the stones about the tee.
Wiktionary
- v. To drive back or beat back; to repulse.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To drive or beat back; to repulse.
- v. To contradict, meet, or oppose by argument, plea, or countervailing proof.
- v. To retire; to recoil.
- v. To make, or put in, an answer, as to a plaintiff's surrejoinder.
WordNet 3.0
- v. prove to be false or incorrect
- v. overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof
Etymologies
- Middle English reboten, rebutte, to rebuke, repel, from Old French rebouter : re-, re- + bouter, to push (of Germanic origin; see bhau- in Indo-European roots).
Examples
“Anyway, what you basically can’t rebut is that a group that’s decently optimized but not “Pun-Pun” type cheeseweasels is playing a game using these rules and finding our fighter to be an equal participant.”
“Advocates of killing off the n-word rebut with a meditating question: Denigrating African-American women, glamorizing violence, defining an intelligent group of people with a racial slur — a term heavily drenched in ignorance and degradation, and all its many associations, is rational, sensible and intelligent?”
“(Not "rebut" or "debate" or whatever else he actually meant, but "rebate," which had me secretly hoping he had a way to refund to us some of our time he had wasted.)”
“Limbaugh and his ilk did not become popular because they were ignored, there is simply a large reserve of sympathy for ignorance and hatred in the American populace. you can't "rebut" these people, they see their logic as infallible, even as it fails to reach even childish levels of reasoning.”
“If you have indeed been able to "rebut" me should it not be obvious?”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“I take it by "rebut" you mean the legal sense of "refute" - but refute implies success i.e. that you have disproved my contention.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“How can I "rebut" your "argument," Greg, when neither of us has any insider information or campaign psychology expertise?”
“Ann: Sorry love .... you've lost me ..... what was there to 'rebut'?”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“For the time being, the decision by the district court has released the administration to "rebut" the next agent who dares to challenge”
“To "rebut" this statement, MediaMutters quotes from a January 1992 Los Angeles Times article:”
oroboros Tuber in reverse. Jul 22, 2007