waving off
Signaling someone away
Waving off is dismissing or rejecting something with a gesture—literal or figurative.
You wave off a suggestion you don't want to consider, wave off thanks you find unnecessary, or wave off a server offering more coffee.
The phrase implies casual dismissal rather than careful refusal: He waved off concerns about the budget.
In sports, officials wave off goals or plays to indicate they don't count.
- deflectionChange in trajectory
- declineDecrease or refuse
- turning downRefusing to accept
- brushing asideDismissing without consideration
- gestureCommunicative body movement
hand signal · reject · shooing · evasion · rebuff · signal · negation · disregard · ignore · no thank you · turning away · denial · dismiss · flag down · distancing · avoidance · send away · motion
- dismissive responseswhatever, dismissal, meh, shrug, disregard
- removalremove, elimination, delete, erasing, erase
- Excusingjustifying, forgiving, pardoning, condoning, rationalizing
- yieldingI yield, surrender, I surrender, capitulation, I give up
- expulsionsejection, ousting, expelling, forcing out, eviction
acknowledgment
waving offacknowledging
Accepting as true
heeding · attending to · validating · considering · addressing