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Many English verbs begin with the prefix re-, meaning “again” or “backward,” so we wouldn’t criticize you for drawing a connection between rebuff and buff, a verb meaning “to polish or shine.” But rebuff would beg to differ: this word comes to us from the Middle French verb rebuffer, which traces back to the Old Italian ribuffare, meaning “to reprimand.” (Buff, in contrast, comes from the Middle French noun buffle, meaning “wild ox”). A similar word, rebuke, shares the “criticize” sense of rebuff, but not the “reject” sense; one can rebuke another’s actions or policies, but one does not rebuke the advances of another, for example. Like rebuke, rebuff can also be used as a noun, as in “The proposal was met with a stern rebuff from the Board of Trustees.”
Examples of rebuff in a Sentence
Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 4 Apr. 2025
Negotiation efforts by the bloc have so far been rebuffed by the Trump administration.
—Ece Yildirim, Quartz, 3 Apr. 2025
Trump also rebuffed appeals from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to exempt his country from the president’s new tariffs.
—Sylvan Lane, The Hill, 2 Apr. 2025
Tellingly, Trump, who has been wrangling with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum and being rebuffed by Canada’s Carney, did not include the neighbor nations on his chart of countries today.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 2 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rebuff
Cite this Entry
“Rebuff.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rebuff. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
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