refuse

Adjective

refuse (comparative more refuse, superlative most refuse)

1. Discarded, rejected.

Noun (1)

refuse (uncountable)

1. Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage.

   Synonyms:

   discards, garbage, rubbish, trash

Verb (1)

refuse (third-person singular simple present refuses, present participle refusing, simple past and past participle refused)

1. (transitive) To decline (a request or demand).
   • My request for a pay rise was refused.
   • After the death of his [Verney's] first wife, he proposed to Florence Nightingale but she refused him. Later he married her sister, and for many years Claydon was Miss Nightingale's second home.1960 March, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 208

   Synonyms:

   decline, reject, nill, say no to, turn down, veto, withsake, withsay, negative, say no

2. (intransitive) To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.
   • I refuse to listen to this nonsense any more.
   • I asked the star if I could have her autograph, but she refused.
3. (ditransitive) To withhold (something) from (someone); to not give it to them or to bar them from having it.
   • If we bang or scream they will spray us with some pepper or something else that's in an aeresol ^([sic]) can, and they wear gas masks, while the rest of us have to breathe the fumes in, and it makes us very sick and they refuse us medical treatment.1991 December 15, Saadia Everett, “Protest Beatings”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 22, page 4
4. To throw back, or cause to keep back (as the centre, a wing, or a flank), out of the regular alignment when troops are about to engage the enemy.
   • to refuse the right wing while the left wing attacks
5. (obsolete, transitive) To disown.
   • Refuse thy name.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Noun (2)

refuse

1. (obsolete) refusal
   • This ſpoken, readie with a proud refuſe [...]1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Twelfth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold]...

Verb (2)

IPA/ɹiːˈfjuːz/

refuse (third-person singular simple present refuses, present participle refusing, simple past and past participle refused)

1. To fuse again, as with, or after, heating or melting.