Definition of refuse

< refusal

refuse >

re·fuse¹    (r-fyz) KEY 

VERB:
re·fused, re·fus·ing, re·fus·es
VERB:
tr.

1. 1. To indicate unwillingness to do, accept, give, or allow: She was refused admittance. He refused treatment.
   2. To indicate unwillingness (to do something): refused to leave.
2. To decline to jump (an obstacle). Used of a horse.

VERB:
intr.

To decline to do, accept, give, or allow something.

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ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English refusen, from Old French refuser, from Vulgar Latin *refsre, probably blend of Latin recsre, to refuse ; see recuse, and Latin reftre, refute ; see refute

OTHER FORMS:
re·fuser(Noun)

SYNONYMS:
refuse¹, decline, reject, spurn, rebuff

These verbs all mean to be unwilling to accept, consider, or receive someone or something. Refuse usually implies determination and often brusqueness: "The commander . . . refused to discuss questions of right" (George Bancroft). "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse" (Mario Puzo). To decline is to refuse courteously: "I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters . . . and now I must decline the Pulitzer Prize" (Sinclair Lewis). Reject suggests the discarding of someone or something as defective or useless; it implies categoric refusal: "He again offered himself for enlistment and was again rejected" (Arthur S.M. Hutchinson). To spurn is to reject scornfully or contemptuously: "The more she spurns my love,/The more it grows" ( Shakespeare). Rebuff pertains to blunt, often disdainful rejection: "He had . . . gone too far in his advances, and had been rebuffed" (Robert Louis Stevenson).