【英国问答】Deny, Refuse, Reject和Decline(1/3)

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        Could you please show me the difference between 'deny', 'refuse', 'reject', 'decline'...
       
       
       
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        英式拼法，全部不加双引号
This is a very common question as deny, refuse, reject and decline often translate to the same word in other languages, so learners often have problems distinguishing between them.
One useful way of seeing the difference between words is to look at the opposite of each one.
Accept could be the opposite of refuse, reject and decline, so we can see that these words have very similar meanings.
The opposite of deny would be admit, however, so this is different to the others, an odd one out.
The main meaning of deny is to say that something is not true. If the police are questioning somebody, the suspect might deny that he committed a crime, for example.
Deny also has a less common use, which is quite similar to refuse, if you deny somebody something, you refuse to give it to them, for example.
The guards denied their prisoners' food and water.
Finally, if you deny someone, you say that they aren't connected to you at all, but this use is rather old-fashioned.