denial

noun

1. an assertion that something said, believed, alleged, etc., is false: Despite his denials, we knew he had taken the purse. The politician issued a denial of his opponent’s charges.
2. refusal to believe a doctrine, theory, or the like.
3. disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing.
4. the refusal to satisfy a claim, request, desire, etc., or the refusal of a person making it.
5. refusal to recognize or acknowledge; a disowning or disavowal: the traitor’s denial of his country; Peter’s denial of Christ.
6. Law. refusal to acknowledge the validity of a claim, suit, or the like; a plea that denies allegations of fact in an adversary’s plea: Although she sued for libel, he entered a general denial.
7. sacrifice of one’s own wants or needs; self-denial.
8. Psychology. an unconscious defense mechanism used to reduce anxiety by denying thoughts, feelings, or facts that are consciously intolerable.

noun

1. a refusal to agree or comply with a statement; contradiction
2. the rejection of the truth of a proposition, doctrine, etca denial of God’s existence
3. a negative reply; rejection of a request
4. a refusal to acknowledge; renunciation; disavowala denial of one’s leader
5. a psychological process by which painful truths are not admitted into an individual’s consciousnessSee also defence mechanism
6. abstinence; self-denial

n.

1520s; see deny + -al (2). Replaced earlier denyance (mid-15c.). Meaning “unconscious suppression of painful or embarrassing feelings” first attested 1914 in A.A. Brill’s translation of Freud’s “Psychopathology of Everyday Life”; phrase in denial popularized 1980s.

n.

1. An unconscious defense mechanism characterized by refusal to acknowledge painful realities, thoughts, or feelings.