refel

English

Alternative forms

• refell

Etymology

From Latin refellere, from re- + fallere (“to deceive”).

Verb

refel (third-person singular simple present refels, present participle refelling, simple past and past participle refelled)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To refute, disprove (an argument); to confute (someone).
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 3, member III:

     Averroes scoffs at Galen for his reasons, and brings five arguments to refel them: so doth Hercules de Saxonia […]

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,
     How he refell'd me, and how I reply'd […]

Anagrams

• Freel, fleer