Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word contradict. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word contradict, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say contradict in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word contradict you have here. The definition of the word contradict will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofcontradict, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Day after day passed away without bringing any other tidings of him than the report which shortly prevailed in Meryton of his coming no more to Netherfield the whole winter; a report which highly incensed Mrs. Bennet, and which she never failed to contradict as a most scandalous falsehood.
I spent the whole long hike back to camp thinking about that amazing letter. It didn’t sound in the least like anything he had ever said in class. Oh, I don’t mean it contradicted anything he had told us in class; it was just entirely different in tone.
To oppose (a person) by denying the truth or pertinence of a given statement.
Now no truth can contradict any truth; desirous therefore they were to be taught, how bothe might stand together, that which they knew could not be false, because Christ spake it; and this which to them did seeme true, onely because the Scribes had said it.
1760, Laurence Sterne, The Sermons of Mr. Yorick, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Volume 1, Sermon 2, p. 32,
as he is going to a house dedicated to joy and mirth, it was fit he should divest himself of whatever was likely to contradict that intention, or be inconsistent with it.
[…] True indeed it is That They whom Death has hidden from our sight Are worthiest of the Mind’s regard; with these The future cannot contradict the past:
My persona was mildly liked by television audiences. Its features were recognizable and caricaturable—the cigarette in its Dunhill holder wielded as gracefully as a Queen Anne fan, the Savile Row suitings whose conservative elegance was contradicted by opennecked silk shirts from Kuala Lumpur or by cream polo sweaters […]
(reflexive) To say things that conflict with each other.
The prime minister contradicted herself during her speech.
(obsolete) To give an order contrary to (another order or wish), oppose (something).
[…] when was the hour I ever contradicted your desire, Or made it not mine too?
1662, Margaret Cavendish, The Matrimonial Trouble, Act II, Scene 21 in Playes written by the thrice noble, illustrious and excellent princess, the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle, London: John Martyn et al., p. 435,
Lady Sprightly. What had you to do to contradict my commands?
Doll Subtilty. They were not fit to be obey’d, wherefore they were forbid.
(obsolete) To give an order contrary to one given by (another person), oppose or resist (someone).
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy:, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
, New York 2001, p. 203:
magic hath been publicly professed in former times, in Salamanca, Cracovia, and other places, though after censured by several universities, and now generally contradicted, though practised by some still .
Synonyms
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