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Refuse
Definitions
- 1 Discarded, rejected.
- 1 Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage. uncountable
- 2 refusal obsolete
"This ſpoken, readie with a proud refuſe [...]"
- 3 food that is discarded (as from a kitchen) wordnet
- 1 To decline (a request or demand). transitive
"My request for a pay rise was refused."
- 2 To fuse again, as with, or after, heating or melting.
- 3 show unwillingness towards wordnet
- 4 To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission. intransitive
"I refuse to listen to this nonsense any more."
- 5 refuse to let have wordnet
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 To withhold (something) from (someone); to not give it to them or to bar them from having it. ditransitive
"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."
- 7 not accept as true wordnet
- 8 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"
- 9 refuse entrance or membership wordnet
- 10 To disown. obsolete, transitive
"Refuse thy name."
- 11 elude, especially in a baffling way wordnet
- 12 resist immunologically the introduction of some foreign tissue or organ wordnet
Etymology
Borrowed into late Middle English from Middle French refusé, past participle of refuser (“to refuse”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”)
Borrowed into late Middle English from Middle French refusé, past participle of refuser (“to refuse”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”)
From Middle English refusen, from Old French refuser, from Vulgar Latin *refūsāre, a blend of Classical Latin refūtāre (whence also refute) and recūsāre (whence also recuse).
From Middle English refusen, from Old French refuser, from Vulgar Latin *refūsāre, a blend of Classical Latin refūtāre (whence also refute) and recūsāre (whence also recuse).
From re- + fuse.
See also for "refuse"
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Unscramble this word: refuse