refuse

Meanings

Adjective

• Discarded, rejected.

Noun

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

Verb

• To decline (a request or demand).
• To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.
• 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 disown.
• To melt again.

Related

Similar words

• discards
• garbage (US)
• rubbish (UK)
• trash (US)
• decline, reject, nill, say no to, turn down, veto, withsake, withsay
• say no, forbear

Origin

• Borrowed into late Middle English from Middle French refusé, past participle of refuser. Displaced native Middle English wernen
• From Old French refuser, from Vulgar Latin *refusare, a blend of Classical Latin refutō and recusō.
• re- + fuse