Definition of "repudiate" [re•pu•di•ate]

• To reject the validity or authority of: "Chaucer . . . not only came to doubt the worth of his extraordinary body of work, but repudiated it” ( Joyce Carol Oates). (verb-transitive)
• To reject emphatically as unfounded, untrue, or unjust: repudiated the accusation. (verb-transitive)
• To refuse to recognize or pay: repudiate a debt. (verb-transitive)
• To disown (a child, for example). (verb-transitive)
• To refuse to have any dealings with. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Will demands that John McCain repudiate John Hagee be balanced by calls for Barack Obama to distance himself from James Carroll?"
• "You hate it that it isn't "conservative," because it didn't pursue "conservative" policies, but you support, defend, and don't reject -- or "repudiate" -- those policies."
• ""Shakespeare liked to coin new words too," she said. tweet following her use of the word - something of a mix of 'refute' and 'repudiate' -"
• "In the summer NAACP members called on tea party groups to "repudiate" what they called "racist elements" in the movement."