- To rebuff is to reject someone or something in an abrupt way.
When someone asks you on a date and you turn them down by telling them you don't like the way they dress, this is an example of a time when you rebuff.
- an abrupt, blunt refusal of offered advice, help, etc.
- any check or repulse
Origin of rebuffMiddle French rebuffe ; from Italian rabbuffo ; from rabbuffare, to disarrange, altered by metathesis (prob. influenced, influence by buffare, to blow) ; from baruffare, to scuffle ; from Langobardic an unverified form biraufan, akin to Old High German biroufan, to tussle, pluck out
- to refuse bluntly; snub
- to check or repulse
- A blunt or abrupt repulse or refusal, as to an offer.
- A check or an abrupt setback to progress or action: a rebuff to his ambitions.
transitive verbre·buffed, re·buff·ing, re·buffs
- To reject bluntly, often disdainfully; snub: rebuff a person making advances; rebuff a request. See Synonyms at refuse1.
- To repel or drive back: rebuffed the attack.
Origin of rebuffFrom obsolete French rebuffer, to reject, from Italian ribuffare, from ribuffo, reprimand : ri-, back (from Latin re-; see re–) + buffo, gust, puff (of imitative origin).
(third-person singular simple present rebuffs, present participle rebuffing, simple past and past participle rebuffed)