contravene

UK/ˌkɒn.tɹəˈviːn/

verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,986 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: contravened, contravening, contravenes

To contravene is to act against a rule or a law. Contravene the regulations.

It is the formal word and belongs to notices and to court judgements. To contravene a rule need not be deliberate, which is what separates it from defying one.

Definitions of contravene

1verbcontraveneTo act against a rule or a law.C1
“The sign warned that parking there would contravene the byelaw.”

contravene is a breaking.

Where it comes from

Latin contravenire means to come against, from contra plus venire, to come.

Proto-Indo-European
*gʷem-
Latin
contraveniō
Middle French
contravenir
English, today
contravene

From Middle French contravenir (French contrevenir), from Latin contraveniō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

contravene in the wild

The fitting of these kits outside the US may not contravene laws in those countries where fitted.
Hydrogen fuel enhancement
As a result, he was warned not to contravene the party line in future.
Leslie Solley
The Solemn Act defined penalties for those people who contravene the insurgent war or for those who refused to give their financial support.
Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America
As a colour, Orange should be used against metals in order not to contravene the rule of tincture.
Orange (tincture)
Critical defects are those that render the product unsafe or hazardous for the end user or that contravene mandatory regulations.
Acceptable quality limit

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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