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- Dictionaryspurn/spəːn/
verb
- 1. reject with disdain or contempt: "he spoke gruffly, as if afraid that his invitation would be spurned"
noun
- 1. an act of spurning: archaic "it is a spurn of God's sovereignty, and a slight of his goodness"
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The meaning of SPURN is to reject with disdain or contempt : scorn. How to use spurn in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of Spurn.
SPURN definition: 1. to refuse to accept something or someone because you feel that thing or person is not worth…. Learn more.
If you spurn someone or something, you reject them. He spurned the advice of management consultants. [VERB noun] These gestures have been spurned. [VERB noun] ...a spurned lover. [VERB-ed] Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. 1. 3. Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. 1.
SPURN meaning: 1. to refuse to accept something or someone because you feel that thing or person is not worth…. Learn more.
Synonyms for SPURN: refuse, reject, decline, ignore, deny, pass, avoid, dismiss; Antonyms of SPURN: accept, approve, agree (to), receive, tolerate, take, adopt, swallow
To spurn means to reject with disdain. Originally, to spurn was to kick away. Though it's not used in that context so often anymore, being spurned still feels like a kick in the gut. You can reject someone kindly, or let them down easily, but you can't spurn someone with anything but malice.
1. to reject with disdain; scorn. 2. to kick or trample with the foot. 3. Archaic. to scorn something. n. 4. disdainful rejection. 5. contemptuous treatment. 6. a kick. [1250–1300; (v.) Middle English; Old English spurnan, c. Old Saxon, Old High German spurnan, Old Norse sporna to kick] spurn′er, n. syn: See refuse 1.
spurn somebody/something to reject or refuse somebody/something, especially in a proud way synonym shun. Eve spurned Mark's invitation. The president spurned the tight security surrounding him and adopted a more intimate style of campaigning. The Oxford Learner’s Thesaurus explains the difference between groups of similar words.
To refuse or reject with contempt or disdain; scorn. To push or drive away contemptuously with or as with the foot. To reject something contemptuously. Scornful treatment or rejection. A kick. A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.
There are seven meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun spurn, four of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
