Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To fail to carry out a promise or commitment: reneged on the contract at the last minute.
- v. Games To fail to follow suit in cards when able and required by the rules to do so.
- v. To renounce; disown.
- n. The act of reneging.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To deny; disown; renounce.
- To deny.
- In card-playing, to play a card that is not of the suit led (as is allowable in some games); also, by extension, to revoke. Also renig.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To break a promise or commitment; to go back on one's word.
- v. intransitive In a card game, to break one's commitment to follow suit when capable.
- v. transitive (archaic) To deny; to renounce
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To deny; to disown.
- v. obsolete To deny.
- v. To fail to keep (a commitment or promise); -- often used with on.
- v. (Card Playing), rare To revoke; to play a card that cannot legally be played according to the rules.
WordNet 3.0
- v. fail to fulfill a promise or obligation
- n. the mistake of not following suit when able to do so
Etymologies
- From Latin renego, from nego ("deny"). Possibly influenced by renegotiate. See also renegade. (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin renegāre, to deny; see renegade. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“After N-Data tried to "renege" on the original agreement, and tried to increase the royalty payment, the FTC decided to take action.”
FTC Looking to Break Down "Patent Walls" For Standardized Technologies
“Mr. Cuomo said the New Orleans-based company agreed not to "renege" on its contract to pay $432 million to the New York Power Authority over the length of the revenue-sharing agreement, which runs through 2014.”
“The government fears that Pfizer will "renege" on this undertaking, he said.”
“Dictionaries state that "renege" means to go back on one's word and that "reneger" is the noun form of the word.”
“I mean, didn't you kind of renege on the agreement here?”
“The colleague, a friend, told me he had been advised that "renege" was off-limits, especially in conversations involving African-Americans, because it suggested the outdated term "Negro.”
“The headline on the Republican Jewish Coalition's press release today [April 14, 2009] calls on President Obama to stop the "equivocating and flip-flopping" on the Durban II conference, and the release expresses concern that the president might "renege" on his promised boycott of the conference.”
“No, "renege" doesn't mean what you think it means.”
“renege" on the plea agreement because judges aren't bound by plea agreements.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘renege’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 282 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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GRE Words R
raiment, regale, reprise, renege, reproach, reprobate, reticent, riposte, rubric, rapacious, ruffian, rote and 3 more...
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Pinochle
List of terms used in the card game pinochle, beginning with meld and trick.
meld, trick, widow, widow's hand, talon, kitty, trump, trump suit, bid, contract, run, marriage and 63 more...
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Reading 2nd Round
fugitive, hearth, elixir, perpetrator, surreal, tavern, stalk, strut, duress, cavil, intriguing, banister and 10 more...
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Incorrectum
Mistakes, Errors and Accidents.
nihilartikel, solecism, bevue, corrigendum, acyrology, cacoepy, fido, hamartithia, jeofail, mésalliance, mumpsimus, pseudochronism and 63 more...
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Summers Vocabulary # 2
jejune, ingratiate, congruent, cryptic, beleaguer, tangential, impregnable, predilection, surly, dolorous, untoward, renege
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Ruzuzu's totally rad, righteous, and ...
R words? Really? Right on!
retail, rabe, rutabega, Rashomon, radioisotope, Rasputin, rusty, rosacea, Rumi, riskier, rat, rifle and 53 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
tatterdemalion, panopticon, idioglossia, hypnagogue, hypnopomp, defenestration, anacoluthon, scofflaw, affront, edifying, palimpsest, naufrage and 476 more...
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Words that Sound Wrong if You Say The...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Niels's Words
bien-pensant, pro re nata, zeitgeist, naïve, quod erat demonst..., dramastic, mélange, amanuensis, heuristic, hermeneutic, gist, gumption and 157 more...
Tweets
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