refuse

comparative more refuse · superlative most refuse

1. Discarded, rejected.

   Upon the floor within, were piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse iron of all kinds.

   1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

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

   Synonyms: discards, garbage, rubbish, trash

present singular third person refuses · participle present refusing · participle past refused · past refused · first person past singular refused · archaic present second person singular refusest · past second person singular refused · archaic past second person singular refusedst · present singular third person refuses · archaic present singular third person refuseth · past singular third person refused · past plural refused · past subjunctive refused · participle present refusing · participle past refused

1. transitiveTo decline (a request or demand).

   My request for a pay rise was refused.

   1 more example

   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 28, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 208

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

2. intransitiveTo decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.

   I refuse to listen to this nonsense any more.

   4 more examples

   I asked the star if I could have her autograph, but she refused.

   Eventually, the railway opened on Monday, December 14, 1896, with a universal fare of 1d. collected at the turnstiles, and conditions were immediately chaotic, as many passengers travelled round and round, and refused to leave the cars.

   1955 January, Charles E. Lee, “The Glasgow Underground Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 24

   Trump has explicitly refused to deal with the European Commission, seeking instead to conduct bilateral relations with individual EU countries.

   2018, Michael Cottakis – LSE, “Colliding worlds: Donald Trump and the European Union”, in LSE's blog

   Though he was struck in the face by falling debris, he refused to get medical help, and instead led a number of people to safety from the lower levels of the towers.

   2026 September 8, Ella Spitz, Kaleena Fraga, “Christopher Amoroso, The Port Authority Policeman Who Died Rescuing Others On 9/11”, in All That's Interesting, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2026

3. ditransitiveTo 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. governmentTo 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. obsoletetransitiveTo 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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

1. obsoleterefusal

   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] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 13, page 215

present singular third person refuses · participle present refusing · participle past refused · past refused · first person past singular refused · past second person singular refused · present singular third person refuses · past singular third person refused · past plural refused · past subjunctive refused · participle present refusing · participle past refused

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