verb
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to reject (a person or thing) with contempt
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archaic to kick (at)
noun
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an instance of spurning
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archaic a kick or thrust
Related Words
See refuse 1.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spurn
First recorded in 1250–1300; (verb) Middle English spurnen, Old English spurnan; cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German spurnan, Old Norse sporna “to kick”; akin to Latin spernere “to put away”; (noun) Middle English: “a kick, contemptuous stroke,” derivative of the verb
Explanation
If you reject your mother's offer to buy you a pair of lederhosen with a snort and eye roll, you are spurning her generosity. To spurn means to reject with disdain. Originally, to spurn was to kick away. Though it's not used in that context so often anymore, being spurned still feels like a kick in the gut. You can reject someone kindly, or let them down easily, but you can't spurn someone with anything but malice.
Vocabulary lists containing spurn
Dissed List: Breakup Words for Valentine's Day
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Grade 11, List 4
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"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" by Patrick Henry (1775)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Appeared in the February 11, 2026, print edition as 'Activist Investor Pushes Warner To Spurn Netflix'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026
The magazine also highlights cultural sites such as the Hull Maritime Museum, Spurn Lightship and the Arctic Corsair – a former deep-sea trawler that helps tell the port city's story.
From BBC • Oct. 23, 2025
Spurn thought and manners, And look: our land is full of ignoramuses now!
From Washington Post • Dec. 15, 2016
If restored, the ship may join the Spurn Lightship and Arctic Corsair in a trail of Hull's maritime heritage.
From BBC • Oct. 4, 2016
Lloyd's signal station on Spurn Point has also intimated that hostile ships coming from the south are lying-to just beyond the Lightship.
From The Great War in England in 1897 by Le Queux, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
