What's the difference between denial and refusal?

Denial


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of gainsaying, refusing, or disowning; negation; -- the contrary of affirmation.
  • (n.) A refusal to admit the truth of a statement, charge, imputation, etc.; assertion of the untruth of a thing stated or maintained; a contradiction.
  • (n.) A refusal to grant; rejection of a request.
  • (n.) A refusal to acknowledge; disclaimer of connection with; disavowal; -- the contrary of confession; as, the denial of a fault charged on one; a denial of God.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) To a supporter at the last election like me – someone who spoke alongside Nick Clegg at the curtain-raiser event for the party conference during the height of Labour's onslaught on civil liberties, and was assured privately by two leaders that the party was onside about civil liberties – this breach of trust and denial of principle is astonishing.
  • (2) The denial of justice to victims of British torture, some of which Britain admits, is set to continue.
  • (3) The Tea Party movement has turned climate denial into a litmus test of conservative credentials – and that has made climate change one of the most sharp divisions between Obama and Romney.
  • (4) Paddy Crerand was interviewed on Irish radio station Newstalk this morning and was in complete denial that Ferguson was about to retire.
  • (5) "After a period of denial," he said, he and the producers had parted company.
  • (6) Denial, minimization, anger, withdrawal and noncompliance may occur.
  • (7) UK in denial over Saudi arms sales being used in Yemen, claims Oxfam Read more A previous draft report prepared by the arms export controls select committee was set to call for a suspension of UK arms sales to Saudi pending an independent investigation into the way the Saudi-led coalition was conducting a bombing campaign in Yemen.
  • (8) Canadian film director Atom Egoyan, whose parents were Armenian-Egyptians, once said: "You can talk about Holocaust denial, but it's marginal for the most part.
  • (9) Denial, resistance, countertransference, and relapse to addictive behaviors are all potential barriers that are often encountered when attempting to treat this population.
  • (10) As his campaign gained momentum, many have been in denial.
  • (11) While this is something that gives substance to the familiar cry of “Never again,” it will be up to the countries in the western Balkans, and in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina, to engage in an honest reckoning with the past, rather than narratives based on chauvinism or denial.
  • (12) "The same people who have those laws (banning Holocaust denial) are saying we shouldn't have them.
  • (13) The reality is they seem to be in denial that the Welsh budget is shrinking yet they seem to be calling for more money to be spent in practically every area.
  • (14) On Thursday he told the Guardian: “There is no more strenuous denial than the one I am giving.
  • (15) Shortly after Blair and Straw issued their denials, Sir Richard Dearlove, who was head of MI6 at the time, said: "It was a political decision, having very significantly disarmed Libya, for the government to co-operate with Libya on Islamist terrorism.
  • (16) To determine the prevalence of off-label anticancer drug use (ie, using drugs to treat conditions other than those listed on the Food and Drug Administration's approved drug label), the extent of reimbursement denials for these uses, and the effect of denials on the treatment of cancer patients.
  • (17) Factor analysis identified three almost uncorrelated coping factors: turning to others; problem solving; and denial.
  • (18) The move follows months of prevarication by the prime minister with carefully worded denials.
  • (19) He said that few in the media or in politics are convinced by Coulson's repeated denials that he knew about phone-hacking at the paper when he edited it.
  • (20) The unexpected admission breaks Pakistan's policy of blanket denial of involvement.

Refusal


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of refusing; denial of anything demanded, solicited, or offered for acceptance.
  • (n.) The right of taking in preference to others; the choice of taking or refusing; option; as, to give one the refusal of a farm; to have the refusal of an employment.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We were instantly refused entrance by the heavies at the door.
  • (2) There are widespread examples across the US of the police routinely neglecting crimes of sexual violence and refusing to believe victims.
  • (3) Such a science puts men in a couple of scientific laws and suppresses the moment of active doing (accepting or refusing) as a sufficient preassumption of reality.
  • (4) There were no deaths but one refused to have ketamine again.
  • (5) That’s a criticism echoed by Democrats in the Senate, who issued a report earlier this month criticising Republicans for passing sweeping legislation in July to combat addiction , the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (Cara), but refusing to fund it.
  • (6) She successfully appealed against the council’s decision to refuse planning permission, but neighbours have launched a legal challenge to be heard at the high court in June.
  • (7) Tony Abbott has refused to concede that saying Aboriginal people who live in remote communities have made a “lifestyle choice” was a poor choice of words as the father of reconciliation issued a public plea to rebuild relations with Indigenous people.
  • (8) The military is not being honest about the number of men on strike: most of us are refusing to eat.
  • (9) But employers who have followed a fair procedure may have the right to discipline or finally dismiss any smoker who refuses to accept the new rules.
  • (10) Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker has refused to say whether he believes in the theory of evolution, arguing that it is “a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or the other”.
  • (11) But in a setback to the UK, Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991, refused British entreaties to attend on the grounds that it would not have been treated as equal to the Somali government.
  • (12) Ten patients had been treated by adrenalectomy, one patient by radiotherapy of the hypophysis, and one patient had refused any treatment.
  • (13) What if the court of justice refuses to answer the question?
  • (14) The only thing the media will talk about in the hours and days after the debate will be Trump’s refusal to say he will accept the results of the election, making him appear small, petty and conspiratorial.
  • (15) A small band of shadow cabinet members have lined up to refuse to serve in posts they haven’t even been offered, on the basis of objection to economic policies they clearly haven’t read.
  • (16) The prerequisite for all champions is the refusal to cave in, so City's equaliser with only three minutes remaining was pleasing.
  • (17) Black males with low intentions to use condoms reported significantly more negative attitudes about the use of condoms (eg, using condoms is disgusting) and reacted with more intense anger when their partners asked about previous sexual contacts, when a partner refused sex without a condom, or when they perceived condoms as interfering with foreplay and sexual pleasure.
  • (18) As long as Israel refuses to cease settlement activities and to the release of the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners in accordance with our agreements, they leave us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements, while Israel continuously violates them,” Abbas said.
  • (19) The people who will lose are not the commercial interests, and people with particular vested interests, it’s the people who pay for us, people who love us, the 97% of people who use us each week, there are 46 million people who use us every day.” Hall refused to be drawn on what BBC services would be cut as a result of the funding deal which will result in at least a 10% real terms cut in the BBC’s funding.
  • (20) These letters are also written during a period when Joyce was still smarting from the publishing difficulties of his earlier works Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” Gordon Bowker, Joyce’s biographer, agreed: “Joyce’s problem with the UK printers related to the fact that here in those days printers were as much at risk of prosecution on charges of publishing obscenities as were publishers, and would simply refuse to print them.