different between deny vs nope

English

Etymology

From Middle English denyen, from Old French denoier (“to deny, to repudiate”) (French dénier), from Latin denegare (“to deny, to refuse”), from de- (“away”) and negare (“to refuse”), the latter ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ne (“no, not”). Doublet of denegate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??na?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??na?/, /d?-/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Hyphenation: de?ny

Verb

deny (third-person singular simple present denies, present participle denying, simple past and past participle denied)

1. (transitive) To disallow or reject.
2. (transitive) To assert that something is not true.
3. (ditransitive) To refuse to give or grant something to someone.
   • 1754, Jonathan Edwards, An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions Respecting that Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency

     To some men, it is more agreeable to deny a vicious inclination, than to gratify it.
4. To take something away from someone; to deprive of.
5. (sports, transitive) To prevent from scoring.
6. To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, etc.; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     the falsehood of denying his opinion

   • 1827, John Keble, The Christian Year

     thou thrice denied, yet thrice beloved

7. (obsolete) To refuse (to do or accept something).

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs.
• Deny can have a connotation that the denial is false; he denied knowing the accused has a more suspicious tone than he said he did not know the accused. However, in some formal usages, e.g. medical records, it can have a more neutral sense (patient denies chest pain).
• See refute.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (assert something is not true): gainsay, contradict, withsay, refute, disclaim

Antonyms

• (disallow): allow
• (assert something is true): confirm, affirm

Derived terms

• deniability
• denier
• justice delayed is justice denied

Related terms

• denial

Translations

Anagrams

• E.D.N.Y., Ynde, dyne

English

Etymology 1

Representing no pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end. Compare yep and welp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /no?p/, [no?p?]
• Rhymes: -??p

Particle

nope

1. (informal) No.
   • 1856, Sidney George Fisher, Charles Edward Fisher, Kanzas and the Constitution, p. 97,

     "Is my son here, Clarence?" asked Roger Oakley. "Nope. The whistle ain't blowed yet."

   • 1880, R. Foli, Ill weeds, p. 319,

     "No," from Tom, ending the word with so decided a pressure of the lips that it sounded like "nope."

   • 1890, Werner's Readings and Recitations, E.S. Werner, p. 50

     “Aunt Kat? And was Aunt Kat your only relation? Have you no father nor mother?” “Nope. Never had none ‘cept Aunt Kat. Her hull name was Katrina. She wuz Dutch she wuz."

   • c1930, Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education, The Detroit Educational Bulletin, Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education, p. 13

     1: I will not dishonour my country's speech by leaving off the last syllables of words, 2: I will say a good American "yes" and "no" in place of an Indian grunt "um-hum" and "nup-um" or a foreign "ya" or "yeh" and "nope"...

   • 2006, Charlotte Hudson Ewing, Red Land, AuthorHouse, ?ISBN, p. 54,

     Nope. Don't know as I do.

Usage notes

The usage as a reply in the form of a single-word sentence has, since the 1850s, been far more common than any others.

Translations

Antonyms

• yup
• yep
• yeah

Noun

nope (plural nopes)

1. (informal) A negative reply, no.
   • 1981, Tom Higgins, Practice quick...and swim, read in Dale Earnhardt: Rear View Mirror, Sports Publishing LLC, ?ISBN (2001), p. 32

     By one reporter's count, questions about the change elicited seven shakes of the head indicating no comment, five "yeps" and three "nopes" from Earnhardt.

2. (slang) An intensely undesirable thing, such as a circumstance or an animal, eliciting immediate repulsion without possibility of further consideration.
   • 2016, Sam Plank, This Cemetery With A Haunted Playground Is A Casket Full Of Nope, Movie Pilot, [1]

     This cemetery with a haunted playground is a casket full of nope.

Translations

Derived terms

• nope out

Etymology 2

Probably a rebracketing of an ope (see 1823 quote), from alp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??p/
• Rhymes: -??p

Noun

nope (plural nopes)

1. (archaic, except near Staffordshire) A bullfinch
   • 1613, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, read in The Complete Works of Michael Drayton, Now First Collected. With Introductions and Notes by Richard Hooper. Volume 2. Poly-olbion Elibron Classics (2005) [facsimile of John Russell Smith (1876 ed)], p. 146,

     To Philomell the next, the Linnet we prefer;/And by that warbling bird, the Wood-Lark place we then, /The Reed-sparrow, the Nope, the Red-breast, and the Wren, /The Yellow-pate: which though she hurt the blooming tree, /Yet scarce hath any bird a finer pipe than she.

   • 1823, Edward Moor, Suffolk Words and Phrases: or, An attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county, R. Hunter, p. 255

     I may note that olp, if pronounced ope, as it sometimes is, may be the origin of nope; an ope, and a nope, differ as little as possible.

   • 1836, David Booth, An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language, in which the Words are Explained in the Order of Their Natural Affinity, Independent of Alphabetical Arrangement, p. 380

     In Natural History, 'An Eye of Pheasants' was also 'A Nye of Pheasants', and even the human Eye was written a Nye. The Bulfinch was either a Nope, or an Ope ; the common Lizard, or Eft (Old English Evet) is also the Newt; the Water-Eft is the Water-Newt ; and the Saxon nedder, a serpent (probably allied to Nether, as crawling on the ground) has been transformed into an Adder.

   • 1882, Abram Smythe Palmer, Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning, G. Bell and Sons, p. 583,

     Nope, an old name for the bullfinch used by Drayton (Wright), is a corrupt form for an ope, otherwise spelt aupe, olp, or alpe (Prompt.Parv.).

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:nope.

Etymology 3

Possibly influenced by nape and knap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??p/

Noun

nope (plural nopes)

1. (East Midlands and Northern England) A blow to the head.
   • 1823, Francis Grose, Pierce Egan, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Francis Grose, p. xci

     (in an example of use of crackmans) The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw.

   • 1829, Joseph Hunter, The Hallamshire Glossary, W. Pickering, p. 69,

     I'll fetch thee a nope.

Verb

nope (third-person singular simple present nopes, present participle noping, simple past and past participle noped)

1. (archaic, East Midlands and Northern England) To hit someone on the head.
   • 1851, Sylvester Judd, Margaret: a tale of the real and the ideal, blight and bloom, Phillips, Sampson, & Co., p. 183,

     "Nope him on the costard," said Ben Bolter.

   • 1891, T F Thiselton Dyer, Church-lore Gleanings, A. D. Innes & co., p. 65

     The sexton seemed reluctant to resume his old duties, remarking -- "Be I to nope Mr. M on the head if I catches him asleep?"

Anagrams

• open, peno-, peon, pone

Dutch

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: no?pe

Verb

nope

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of nopen

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: nope

Interjection

nope

1. (informal) nope

Anagrams

• open

French

Alternative forms

• noppe

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?p/

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch noppe (“a fluff of wool, wool tassel”), from Old Dutch *noppo, *hnoppo, from Proto-Germanic *hnuppô (“nap of cloth”), from Proto-Indo-European *knew-, *kenw- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Cognate with Old English hnoppa (“nap of cloth”). More at nap.

Noun

nope f (plural nopes)

1. A tuft of wool; a knot in a fabric; nap.

Etymology 2

English nope

Interjection

nope

1. (informal, neologism) nope

Further reading

• “nope” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).