What is Refute?
1.
To disagree, or assert the opposite.
(The original meaning was to DISPROVE something: "He refuted their claims by referring to widely accepted experimental results". But these days journalists who are unwilling or unable to assess the strength of an argument, or to check facts, just write "refute".)
"The Prime Minister refuted the suggestion that he was a fool, by saying that he wasn't."
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