Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Refutation
Ref′u·ta′tion (r?f′?·t?′sh?n), n. [L. refutatio: cf. F. réfutation.] The act or process of refuting or disproving, or the state of being refuted; proof of falsehood or error; the overthrowing of an argument, opinion, testimony, doctrine, or theory, by argument or countervailing proof.
Same of his blunders seem rather to deserve a flogging than a refutation. Macaulay.