oppugn
/əˈpjuːn
/verb [with object] formal
Question the truth or validity of: the officials whose judgement was oppugned...
- He declared that the citizens of Boston ‘were disaffected to the Laws of the Land’ and were in a state of ‘open Rebellion, Disobedience, and Disloyalty,’ and that the clergy were foremost in ‘oppugning the Authority of the Laws of the Land.’
Derivatives
oppugner
- If Priestley provoked Anglicans and Dissenters alike by promoting toleration for Roman Catholics in the 1760s, he would increasingly shock and enrage them by proclaiming himself ‘an oppugner of the doctrine of the trinity.’
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'fight against'): from Latin oppugnare 'attack, besiege', from ob- 'against' + pugnare 'to fight'.