Other forms: denied, denying, denies, denys
To deny something is to say flatly that it is not true. The minister denies taking the money. A boy with chocolate round his mouth denies touching the cake, and keeps denying it while you look at his face.
Deny has a second job that has nothing to do with truth: to deny someone something is to refuse to let them have it. Denied entry at the door, denied access to the file, denied bail, denied medical care. The grammar catches learners out, so learn the two patterns — you deny DOING something, or you deny THAT you did it, and never deny to do. You can also deny yourself something you want, which is what a diet feels like. There is no denying means you have to admit it. The noun is denial, and in denial means refusing to face a fact about your own life.
1verbdenyTo say that something is not true.~45%
“He continues to deny that he was anywhere near the building.”
synonyms: contradict, dispute
2verbrefuseTo refuse to give someone something they want or need.~53%
“The guards deny entry to anyone without a stamped letter.”
3verbstopTo stop yourself from having something you want.~2%
“She would deny herself sugar for a whole year and never mention it.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 11 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Deny comes through Middle English denyen and Old French denoier from Latin denegare, to deny or refuse, which is de-, away, plus negare, to refuse. Behind negare stands a Proto-Indo-European word meaning simply no, not. Deny is therefore no, pushed away with the hand, and both halves of the modern word are still there: the fact you refuse to accept, and the thing you refuse to hand over.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁eǵ-
Proto-Indo-European
*né — no, not
Latin
denegare — to deny, to refuse
Old French
denoier — to deny, to repudiate
Middle English
denyen
English, today
deny
Built from
From Middle English denyen, from Old French denoier (“to deny, to repudiate”) (French dénier), from Latin denegare (“to deny, to refuse”), from de- (“away”) and negare (“to refuse”), the latter ultimately from Proto-Indo-European né (“no, not”). a doublet of denegate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA