spurn

/spərn/

/spən/

Other forms: spurned; spurning; spurns

If you reject your mother's offer to buy you a pair of lederhosen with a snort and eye roll, you are spurning her generosity. 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.

Definitions of spurn

1. verb

   reject with contempt
   “She spurned his advances”

   synonyms: disdain, freeze off, pooh-pooh, reject, scorn, turn down

   decline, pass up, refuse, reject, turn down

   refuse to accept

   refuse, reject, turn away, turn down

   refuse entrance or membership

   types:

   rebuff, repel, snub

   reject outright and bluntly

   type of:

   balk, decline, refuse

   show unwillingness towards