contravene
/ˌkɒn.tɹəˈviːn/
contravene verb: to act contrary to an order; to fail to conform to a regulation or obligation.
Verb
contravene (third-person singular simple present contravenes, present participle contravening, simple past and past participle contravened)
- To act contrary to an order; to fail to conform to a regulation or obligation.
- […] nothing is a commandement, or a commanded dutie but that which if we contravene, it maketh us guilty of sin before God,1648, Samuel Rutherford, chapter 69, in A Survey of the Spirituall Antichrist, London: Andrew Crooke, page 141
- […] this Article directly contravenes the Treaty with Portugal […]1713, Daniel Defoe, Considerations upon the eighth and ninth articles of the treaty of commerce and navigation, London: J. Baker, page 8
- To deny the truth of something.
- […] to make the contravening of Doctrines, to be capitall, before they be fully proved, is prejudiciall to that liberty, without which none can justify himself before God or Man:1653, William Birchley, The Christian Moderator, Part 3, London: Richard Lowndes, p. 7
- To contravene positions, that have been discussed again and again by writers of the first genius and erudition, and to disparage the genuineness of the bible histories wholly and indiscriminately, without some precision of investigation, some specific allegations, founded on the report of authentic...1794, Gilbert Wakefield, An Examination of The Age of Reason, London, page 38
- Synonyms:
- contradict, controvert, dispute, gainsay
contravene meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
contravene in Tamil
- மீறி நட, முரண்படு
contravene in Urdu
- دخل اندازی کرنا, مخالفت کرنا
contravene in Bengali
- লঙ্ঘন করা, বিরোধিতা করা
contravene in Malayalam
- breach, break, violate
- ലംഘിക്കുക, എതിരായി പ്രവർത്തിക്കുക, ഭേദിക്കുക, മീറുക, അതിക്രമിക്കുക, ഉല്ലംഘിക്കുക
- conflict with, be in conflict with, be at odds with
- വിപരീതമായിരിക്കുക, വിരുദ്ധമായിരിക്കുക, എതിരായിനിൽക്കുക, ഏറ്റുമുട്ടലിലായിരിക്കുക, സംഘട്ടനത്തിലാകുക, വിരുദ്ധധ്രുവങ്ങളിലായിരിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- contravene in Kannada
- ಮೀರು mīru
Examples of contravene in a sentence
- I have shown that slavery is wicked […] in that it contravenes the laws of eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all the humane and heavenly precepts of the New Testament.1855, Frederick Douglass, “. Appendix.”, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC...
- […] the other medical visitors having a consultative influence, but no power to contravene Lydgate’s ultimate decisions;1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, London: William Blackwood, Volume 3, Book 5, Chapter 45, p. 44:
- It was a construction in wood, with manifold “features” suggestive of the villa, the bungalow, the chateau, the palace; it united all tastes and contravened all conventions.1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 2, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, page 19:
- Some legal experts argue that the bill contravenes Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms.2012 May 24, Adam Gabbatt, “Canada student protests erupt into political crisis with mass arrests”, in the Guardian:
Synonyms of contravene
Forms of contravene
| third-person singular present | contravenes |
|---|---|
| present participle | contravening |
| past participle | contravened |
| past | contravened |
Origin of contravene
From Middle French contravenir (French contrevenir), from Latin contraveniō.
Words formed from contravene
Questions about contravene
- What does contravene mean?
- Contravene means to act contrary to an order; to fail to conform to a regulation or obligation.
- What is contravene in Tamil?
- Contravene in Tamil is மீறி நட, முரண்படு. See Contravene meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use contravene in a sentence?
- I have shown that slavery is wicked […] in that it contravenes the laws of eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all the humane and heavenly precepts of the New Testament.
- What part of speech is contravene?
- Contravene is a verb.
- How do you pronounce contravene?
- Contravene is pronounced /ˌkɒn.tɹəˈviːn/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of contravene?
- The past tense of contravene is contravened.
Words near contravene in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: contravene (page history and authors); contravene (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contravene (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contravene (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); contravene (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ಮೀರು (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-contravene.wav.
Cite this entry: “contravene.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/contravene. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.