denegation

noun

1. A denial, refusal or contradiction.

   “[B]y the same token to see Horton's straight denegation. I see Horton say emphatically No—and this for reasons quite conceivable in him, once one apprehends their connection with his wishing above all, beyond anything else that he at this moment wishes, to keep well with Gray. His denegation is plausible; Gray believes it and accepts it all the more that at the moment in question he wants to, in the interest of his own freedom of action.”