What's the difference between confute and rebut?

Confute


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To overwhelm by argument; to refute conclusively; to prove or show to be false or defective; to overcome; to silence.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The apparent differences between the glutamate-induced current and nerve-evoked synaptic response revealed by TI-233 can be explained by open-channel block of the glutamate-activated ion-channel, and do not confute the hypothesis that glutamate is the natural transmitter substance at this junction.
  • (2) The results also confute interresponse-time theories of schedule performance, which require interval and ratio contingencies to produce different response rates.
  • (3) Arguably, though, Stone and Kuznick's contention is less readily confuted.
  • (4) These results confute the suitability of this agent for the treatment of benign skin disorders.
  • (5) The Author, following a critical approach focussed on society's response to deviance and on the means of social control which society applies to defend itself from crime and criminals, confutes the thesis according to which the demise of public execution is generally considered as a step in the evolution of the humanitarian ideal of total abolition of the death penalty.
  • (6) The difference does not confute the hypothesis that glutamate is the natural transmitter substance at the crayfish NMJ, notwithstanding the fact that the action of the transmitter candidate on the postsynaptic membrane must be identical in every respect with that of the transmitter.
  • (7) administration of Diazepam is confuted and the risks of such a methodology in subjects with severe cerebral damage or in the third age, are pointed out.
  • (8) This enables us to confute the claim that psychiatric syndromes are not clinically specific.

Rebut


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To drive or beat back; to repulse.
  • (v. t.) To contradict, meet, or oppose by argument, plea, or countervailing proof.
  • (v. i.) To retire; to recoil.
  • (v. i.) To make, or put in, an answer, as to a plaintiff's surrejoinder.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He did not speculate about when that would be, and he did not rebut Cardin’s claim that it could be next month.
  • (2) Hinton’s defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to try to rebut the prosecution testimony about the bullets.
  • (3) "Once again, UK data has rebutted the claim that the UK is as bad as some of the eurozone's struggling economies," said ING economist Rob Carnell.
  • (4) However, letters to Hunt from the alliance's lawyers in January and February complaining about the way the process was being handled and issues with fair access were vigorously rebutted.
  • (5) He was at pains to rebut criticism in the western media over the jailing of journalists caught up in the long-running investigation into an attempted military coup and claims that the government has used the case to intimidate sections of the press.
  • (6) In this reply, we rebut his arguments and also describe new pharmacological and other recent data showing unambiguously that the nerve activity we measured was not of postganglionic sympathetic origin.
  • (7) The government has rebutted accusations that a vast free trade deal being negotiated between the EU and the US will act as a cover to privatise the NHS while also watering down food standards and banking regulations.
  • (8) The foreign affairs minister was one of a series of government ministers who sought to rebut concerns about labour movement provisions in the yet-to-be legislated agreement.
  • (9) This observation rebuts the concept of additional perfusion of capillaries which are devoid of plasma flow under resting conditions during coronary vasodilation.
  • (10) Nevertheless, Miliband’s inability to rebut criticisms that are longstanding and widespread is very much something that he has to take responsibility for himself.
  • (11) There is also the problematic fact that postcolonial theory has, in its account of the colonial encounter, focused almost exclusively on the matter of imperial misrepresentation: it largely ignores what non-western cultures were up to in the last two centuries, unless they were seen to be actively engaged in rebutting the coloniser.
  • (12) Rudd has also proposed sweeping changes to the rules governing the election of Labor leaders, in order to rebut Coalition claims that the “faceless” men could again dump him if Labor was voted back in.
  • (13) Schmidt still denies that he is interested in a career in politics; the question was rebutted with a brief "no".
  • (14) Mitt's now trying to rebut the "Let Detroit go bankrupt" line o argument, which is dumb.
  • (15) It was the time of the first intifada and Cholodenko worked for a lawyer in the justice department whose job it was to rebut the charges laid down in reports by the likes of Amnesty International.
  • (16) But, rebutting Hayden, he said: "What makes the United States special and what makes you special is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it's hard, not just when it's easy, even when we are afraid and under threat, not just when its expedient to do so.
  • (17) We cannot let that happen.” “He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia,” she said, adding at another point in the speech: “This isn’t reality television, this is actual reality.” Later, Clinton added: “It is not hard to see how a Trump presidency could lead to a global economic crisis.” The former secretary of state’s speech, staged in front of a wall of US flags, rebutted a foreign policy address Trump made in April in which he promised to save “humanity itself” and “shake the rust off America’s foreign policy”.
  • (18) Chilcot wants to ensure that those criticised are given every opportunity to rebut the criticism.
  • (19) But he added: "To rebut it: I wouldn't like to have been one of those actors who hit stardom quite early on and expected it to continue and was stuck doing scripts that I didn't particularly like just to keep the income up.
  • (20) Most contentiously, the researchers rebutted the opinion of some ministers that it is the expanding number of food banks that is driving up the demand for food parcels.