A rebuff turns someone or something away, while a rebuke tells someone off for what they did. If your offer gets a rebuff, it is rejected; if your behaviour earns a rebuke, it is criticised.
The core difference
A rebuff is a refusal or a pushing away, while a rebuke is a sharp criticism of someone's conduct.
- rebuff — a sudden refusal or a beating back: his offer of help met with a firm rebuff.
- rebuke — a sharp expression of disapproval, or to criticise someone for wrongdoing: her manager rebuked her for turning up late three days running.
How to tell them apart
Both words carry a sense of pushing back, which is why they get muddled. But a rebuff answers an approach — an offer, a request, an advance — by turning it down. A rebuke answers a piece of behaviour by scolding the person responsible for it.
One memory trick: a rebuff is something you receive when you try to get close (think of it knocking you back), while a rebuke is something you receive when you have done something wrong (think of it as a ticking-off). A senator's public rebuke is aimed at conduct or policy; a rebuffed advance is simply refused.
