Refute='contest' in the wild

[Geoffrey Nathan]

Here's a nice example of 'refute' used to mean 'argue against' without any presupposition of success: 

Immediately after Obama’s speech, former Vice President Dick Cheney delivered a speech refuting Obama’s comments about how to handle the Guantanamo detainees. 

This came from a weekly mailing from Cato, a libertarian think-tank and virulent opponent of Cheney and in the context of an article attacking the pro-torture views of some of our former rulers, errr, government officials. It occurred in a mailing entitled 'Obama vs. Cheney Smackdown ' dated today. 

Geoff 


Geoffrey S. Nathan 
Faculty Liaison, C&IT 
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program 
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT) 
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics) 

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