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The -but in rebut once meant basically "butt", so rebut's original meanings were "to drive or beat back" and "to attack with violent language". Rebuttals can still be rather violent, as anyone who has watched some heated moments in a presidential debate can testify. The word is often used by lawyers, since the lawyer for the accused or for the party being sued almost always tries to rebut the charges against his or her client; but it's also used in plenty of contexts outside the courtroom.
Examples of rebut in a Sentence
Mike Ives, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
Falsehoods that reveal something about the speaker may have enough value to keep, so long as they are rebutted, but detail that is truly unverifiable, or clearly and unfixably specious, will typically be cut: deciding what not to publish can be just as important as deciding what to keep in.
—Fergus McIntosh, The New Yorker, 11 Jan. 2025
Friday, Leavitt rebutted a Reuters report that suggested tariffs could be delayed, stating that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on China would be put in place Saturday.
—Cnn.com, The Mercury News, 3 Feb. 2025
That amounted to nothing more than a breach of private terms of service, prosecutors rebutted, even as the defense alleged constitutional rights violations over the advanced technique known as investigative genetic genealogy, or IGG, that first put Kohberger on police’s radar.
—Kevin Fixler, Idaho Statesman, 24 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rebut
Cite this Entry
“Rebut.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rebut. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
rebut
verb
Legal Definition
rebut
transitive verb
Anglo-French reboter, rebuter to answer a charge, bar from an action, literally, to repulse, rebuff, from Old French reboter, from re- back + boter to push, butt
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