What's the difference between disavow and recant?

Disavow


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To refuse strongly and solemnly to own or acknowledge; to deny responsibility for, approbation of, and the like; to disclaim; to disown; as, he was charged with embezzlement, but he disavows the crime.
  • (v. t.) To deny; to show the contrary of; to disprove.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The former Massachusetts governor, like many Republicans, expected the Trump campaign to implode last summer, after he insulted Mexicans and said Arizona senator and 2008 Republican nominee John McCain was not a “war hero” because “I like people who weren’t captured.” This year, days after Trump did not immediately disavow an expression of support from David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, Romney said one of his sons was driving him to an airport when he asked: “When the grandkids ask ‘What did you do to stop Donald Trump ?’ what are you going to say?’” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Romney launches extensive attack on Trump: ‘A genius he is not’ That, Romney said, was the final push.
  • (2) In fact, not only have the teams that failed to qualify not been invited to play, for if they were that would contradict the elitist terms of the qualification that are disavowed so cunningly here by Pitbull, but also in reality, only Fifa functionaries, Brazilian bureaucrats and half the BBC will get into Brazil's stadiums gratis this summer.
  • (3) He has since disavowed that approach and, for nearly two years, has advocated for a piecemeal approach to immigration reform that begins with enforcement at the border.
  • (4) He begins his first-person narrative in words that echo the famous opening of Twain’s novel ( No 23 in this series ), a frank disavowal of “all that David Copperfield kind of crap”.
  • (5) Becoming "nice" isn't a natural process, and all sorts of things have to be disavowed along the way.
  • (6) UN, human rights groups and refugee groups demand solutions following Nauru data leak – as it happened Read more Giles did not disavow the policy Labor resolved at the national conference but he said: “That material shows [the immigration minister] Peter Dutton’s claims that asylum seekers are safe are baseless.
  • (7) Earlier this month, Jenny McCarthy, the anti-vaccine movement's loudest proponent, disavowed her earlier arguments .
  • (8) Europe and US urge Turkey to respect rule of law after failed coup Read more The statements by opposition leaders and top military officers, including army commanders, disavowing the coup sealed its fate.
  • (9) Nicknamed “Mad Dog”, though he has disavowed the label, the former Marine Corps general has criticised the Barack Obama administration for surrendering US leadership in the world and expressed strong support for Nato.
  • (10) In Damascus, still a stronghold of the Syrian president, there was little faith on Saturday that rebel groups would honour elements of the deal to disavow extremism.
  • (11) Recently, Scott Alpert, a former treatment provider at a Malibu facility, penned a scathing disavowal: "At the Malibu treatment centre where I worked, the focus was on caring for the client's creature comforts instead of healing their core issues that contributed to their substance abuse, alcohol abuse, or other addictive behaviour.
  • (12) They are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it’s in Iraq or anywhere else.” Hagel said Isis, also kown as Isil, which began as al-Qaida’s Iraq affiliate before being disavowed last year over its brutality, was a calibre above previous terrorist organisations the US has faced.
  • (13) McCorvey, who has since disavowed abortion, told Fox News: "I'm a peaceful protester, but if they come, they'll just take me away."
  • (14) The immigration minister declined an invitation by television presenter Andrew Bolt to disavow all immigration from the Middle East, or to screen people for “cultural compatibility” with Australia.
  • (15) The history of child sexual abuse, whether viewed by parent via child, therapist via patient, or adult survivor via the child within, is one of unimaginable pain and betrayal masked by adult distancing, disavowal, victim blame, and identification with the aggressor.
  • (16) In a hastily-convened press conference, the Republican presidential candidate confirmed the authenticity of the video and opted against disavowing the views expressed in it.
  • (17) Among MPs, his appointment was seen as a disavowal of Corbyn’s commitment to create a political consensus.
  • (18) In the symptoms the author observed signs of defective personality functioning such as disavowal of reality, low anxiety tolerance, various forms of identity disturbances.
  • (19) Man behind RRS Boaty McBoatface disavows his name for polar vessel Read more The name was first put forward by former BBC radio presenter James Hand, who expressed surprise at the furore Boaty McBoatface has caused.
  • (20) First preparation camps For the mujahid on the day he joins the Islamic State, whether as a muhajir or from the ansar: and the camp includes sharia sessions through which the mujahid studies the fiqh [jurisprudence] of the rulings, Islamic doctrine, al-wala’ and al-bara’ [loyalty and disavowal], in addition to the arts of fighting and the arts of using weapons, with screening of every mujahid in a specialty in which he excels and completing his camp according to his skill in specific weapons.

Recant


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To withdraw or repudiate formally and publicly (opinions formerly expressed); to contradict, as a former declaration; to take back openly; to retract; to recall.
  • (v. i.) To revoke a declaration or proposition; to unsay what has been said; to retract; as, convince me that I am wrong, and I will recant.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The prime minister made an unscheduled statement on Tuesday morning from behind a lectern outside 10 Downing Street, in which she recanted her repeated promise not to go to the polls before 2020.
  • (2) The hordes poured in to defend her, the story went global and by lunchtime on Friday the leader of the council was having to recant and apologise, live on BBC Radio 4.
  • (3) My article for the Forest Journal, robustly supporting the chancellor’s earlier policy, is already with the printer … Having been persuaded of the correctness of the course that the chancellor is now following, I merely needed an opportunity to recant.” Philip Hammond’s letter Ann-Marie Trevelyan, a backbench MP who had raised concerns about the NICs rise, told the Guardian she welcomed the chancellor’s change of heart: “My leaflets had ‘no tax rises’ on them.
  • (4) One explicitly said he sought no recantation of past remarks nor a change of position on Israel, just reassurance that "you won't put us through another four years of this".
  • (5) The experience with zomepirac (Zomax) and the unexpected incidence of severe anaphylactic reactions is recanted as an unfortunate illustrated example that has served to upgrade the adverse reaction reporting process.
  • (6) Though Berger never specifically recanted, he did later admit that Ways of Seeing was too rushed and crude, and that he had not allowed for the genius factor.
  • (7) Referring to the two hadith in which Muhammad reportedly condemns apostasy as a capital offence, Maher Hathout , author of In Pursuit of Justice: The Jurisprudence of Human Rights in Islam writes: "both of them contradict the Qur'an and other instances in which the Prophet did not compel anyone to embrace Islam, nor punish them if they recanted."
  • (8) Anders also said that on 2 May Sterling met Stiviano at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills – just before she recorded an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters – and asked her to recant statements about the tape's authenticity and confess to doctoring it.
  • (9) Mal Brough has categorically denied asking Peter Slipper’s former staffer to procure copies of the Speaker’s diary for him, recanting an admission he apparently made during a 60 Minutes interview last year.
  • (10) Instead, Flint professed her loyalty, only to recant 18 hours later, while Hutton insisted his departure was personal and that he wanted Brown to stay in post.
  • (11) As a former prosecutor herself, Gold said it is tough to bring charges when a witness recants, even though it is possible to bring a case to trial when there is no witness prepared to testify.
  • (12) He later recanted the position on reducing Asian immigration.
  • (13) There were no breast-beating recantations but, according to Dawidoff, "he still [had] reservations about how far afield he took country music from the relatively unadorned prewar downhome sound."
  • (14) In an interview on the 7.30 program, the independent senator Andrew Wilkie said Garrett’s recanting of the story “beggars belief”.
  • (15) Instead of defending her position, Penny caved, recanted, and commented mournfully that "having your privilege checked" was painful.
  • (16) • Five doctors were coerced by the Sri Lankan government to recant on casualty figures they gave to journalists in the last months of island's brutal civil war.
  • (17) William Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant director in New York, said on Monday that the FBI had got a report of a domestic incident involving Rahami some time ago, but the allegations had been recanted, and “there’s nothing to indicate that currently he was on our radar”.
  • (18) The change in the tide was obvious when arch-Blairite Peter Mandelson went on television to recant.
  • (19) It would recant the illiberal legacy of Labour home secretaries, of Charles Clarke , Jack Straw and Jacqui Smith , and reassert individual rights against the surveillance state.
  • (20) Nick Herbert, the Tory MP who chaired his party’s remain campaign, wrote in the Guardian that anyone warning against hard Brexit was branded as “heretics who must recant and swear adherence to the new faith”.