Adjacent Words

Spurn definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SPURN, v.t. [L., spur, kicking.]
1. To kick; to drive back or away, as with the foot.
2. To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept. What multitudes of rational beings spurn the offers of eternal happiness!
3. To treat with contempt.
SPURN, v.i.
1. To manifest disdain in rejecting any thing; as, to spurn at the gracious offers of pardon.
2. To make contemptuous opposition; to manifest disdain in resistance.
Nay more, to spurn at your most royal image.
3. To kick or toss up the heels.
The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns.
SPURN, n. Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
The insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: reject with contempt; "She spurned his advances" [syn: reject, spurn, freeze off, scorn, pooh-pooh, disdain, turn down]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Etymology: Middle English, from Old English spurnan; akin to Old High German spurnan to kick, Latin spernere to spurn, Greek spairein to quiver Date: before 12th century intransitive verb 1. obsolete a. stumble b. kick 1a 2. archaic to reject something disdainfully transitive verb 1. to tread sharply or heavily upon ; trample 2. to reject with disdain or contempt ; scorn Synonyms: see decline • spurner noun II. noun Date: 14th century 1. a. kick 1a b. obsolete stumble 2. a. disdainful rejection b. contemptuous treatment

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v.tr. 1 reject with disdain; treat with contempt. 2 repel or thrust back with one's foot. --n. an act of spurning. Derivatives: spurner n. Etymology: OE spurnan, spornan, rel. to SPUR

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Spurn Spurn, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spurned; p. pr. & vb. n. Spurning.] [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise, Skr. sphur to jerk, to push. [root]171. See Spur.] 1. To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [The bird] with his foot will spurn adown his cup. --Chaucer. I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. --Shak. 2. To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept; to treat with contempt. What safe and nicely I might well delay By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn. --Shak. Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet. --Locke.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Spurn Spurn, v. i. 1. To kick or toss up the heels. The miller spurned at a stone. --Chaucer. The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns. --Gay. 2. To manifest disdain in rejecting anything; to make contemptuous opposition or resistance. Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Spurn Spurn, n. 1. A kick; a blow with the foot. [R.] What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn? --Milton. 2. Disdainful rejection; contemptuous tratment. The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes. --Shak. 3. (Mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(spurns, spurning, spurned) If you spurn someone or something, you reject them. He spurned the advice of management consultants... ...a spurned lover. VERB: V n, V-ed

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Kick, drive back, drive away. 2. Contemn, scorn, scout, despise, disdain, make light of, look down upon, hold in contempt.

Moby Thesaurus

abjure, ban, banish, beat back, blackball, brush aside, brush off, cast out, chase, chase away, chase off, chuck, chuck out, cold-shoulder, contemn, contradict, cut, cut direct, decline, deny, deport, despise, disapprove, discard, disclaim, discount, disdain, disfellowship, dismiss, disown, disregard, drive away, drive back, except, exclude, excommunicate, exile, expatriate, expel, extradite, fend off, flout, forswear, fugitate, fuss, hold off, humiliation, ignore, keep off, look down upon, ostracize, outlaw, pack off, pass by, pass up, pick and choose, proscribe, push aside, push back, put back, rebuff, recant, refuse, refuse to consider, refuse to receive, reject, relegate, renounce, repel, reprobate, repudiate, repulse, rusticate, scoff, scorn, scorn to receive, scout, send away, send down, send off, send packing, send to Coventry, shove away, slight, sneer, sneer at, sneeze at, sniff, snort, snub, spit upon, spurning, steer clear of, the cold shoulder, the go-by, throw away, throw out, thrust back, thrust out, transport, turn away, turn back, turn down, turn out, waive, ward off