Library / English Dictionary

RENOUNCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cast off

Example:

The parents repudiated their son

Synonyms:

disown; renounce; repudiate

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "renounce" is one way to...):

reject (refuse to accept or acknowledge)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "renounce"):

apostatise; apostatize; tergiversate (abandon one's beliefs or allegiances)

abjure; forswear; recant; resile; retract (formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure)

swallow; take back; unsay; withdraw (take back what one has said)

rebut; refute (overthrow by argument, evidence, or proof)

deny (refuse to accept or believe)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

renouncement (an act (spoken or written) declaring that something is surrendered or disowned)

renunciation (rejecting or disowning or disclaiming as invalid)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Turn away from; give up

Example:

I am foreswearing women forever

Synonyms:

foreswear; quit; relinquish; renounce

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "renounce" is one way to...):

abandon; give up (give up with the intent of never claiming again)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "renounce"):

disclaim (renounce a legal claim or title to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

renunciant (used especially of behavior)

renunciation (an act (spoken or written) declaring that something is surrendered or disowned)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Leave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily

Example:

The chairman resigned when he was found to have misappropriated funds

Synonyms:

give up; renounce; resign; vacate

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "renounce" is one way to...):

leave office; quit; resign; step down (give up or retire from a position)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "renounce"):

abdicate; renounce (give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations

Example:

The King abdicated when he married a divorcee

Synonyms:

abdicate; renounce

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "renounce" is one way to...):

give up; renounce; resign; vacate (leave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

renouncement (an act (spoken or written) declaring that something is surrendered or disowned)

renunciation (the act of renouncing; sacrificing or giving up or surrendering (a possession or right or title or privilege etc.))

renunciation (an act (spoken or written) declaring that something is surrendered or disowned)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Mr. Dick shook his head, as utterly renouncing the suggestion; and having replied a great many times, and with great confidence, No beggar, no beggar, no beggar, sir! went on to say, that from his window he had afterwards, and late at night, seen my aunt give this person money outside the garden rails in the moonlight, who then slunk away—into the ground again, as he thought probable—and was seen no more: while my aunt came hurriedly and secretly back into the house, and had, even that morning, been quite different from her usual self; which preyed on Mr. Dick's mind.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: and I must renounce love and idol.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Now, if she had been the heroine of a moral storybook, she ought at this period of her life to have become quite saintly, renounced the world, and gone about doing good in a mortified bonnet, with tracts in her pocket.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

If she were not true to it, might the object she now had in life, which bound her to something devoid of evil, in its passing away from her, leave her more forlorn and more despairing, if that were possible, than she had been upon the river's brink that night; and then might all help, human and Divine, renounce her evermore!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)