Definition of: renounce

(ri·nouns′) v. ·nounced, ·nounc·ing v.t.
1. To give up, especially by formal statement.
2. To disown; repudiate.
3. In card games, to indicate inability to follow (a suit led) by playing a card of another suit.
—v.i.
4. In card games, to renounce the suit led. [<F renoncer <L renuntiare protest against, announce <re- back, against + nuntiare report <nuntius messenger]
—re·nounce′ment noun
—re·nounc′er noun Synonyms: abandon, abjure, deny, disavow, discard, disclaim, disown, forswear, recall, recant, refuse, reject, repudiate, retract, revoke. Abjure, discard, forswear, recall, recant, renounce, retract, and revoke, like abandon, imply some previous connection. Renounce is to declare against and give up formally and definitively; as, to renounce the pomps and vanities of the world. Retract is to take back something that one has said as not true or as what one is not ready to maintain; as, to retract a charge or accusation; one recants his own opinions or beliefs. Repudiate is to put away with emphatic and determined repulsion; as, to repudiate a debt. To deny is to affirm to be not true or not binding; as, to deny a statement or relationship; or to refuse to grant, as a request or petition. To discard is to cast away as useless or worthless; thus, one discards a worn garment. Revoke, etymologically the equivalent of the English recall, is to take back something given or granted; as, to revoke a command, a will, or a grant; recall may be used in the exact sense of revoke, but is often applied to persons, as revoke is not; we recall a messenger and revoke an order. Compare ABANDON, ABDICATE, ABJURE, RECANT. Antonyms: acknowledge, advocate, assert, avow, cherish, claim, defend, hold, maintain, own, proclaim, retain, uphold, vindicate.