refuse

Borrowed into late Middle English from Middle French refusé, past participle of refuser (“to refuse”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”)

• enPR: rĕfʹyo͞os, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛfjuːs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

refuse (comparative more refuse, superlative most refuse)

1. Discarded, rejected.

refuse (uncountable)

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

• discards
• garbage (US)
• rubbish (UK)
• trash (US)
• See also Thesaurus:trash

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).

• enPR: rĭfyo͞ozʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈfjuːz/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːz

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.

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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Isaiah 1:20:

     If ye refuse […] ye shall be devoured with the sword.

   • 2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎:

     City were outclassed thereafter and Roberto Mancini said that substitute Carlos Tevez refused to play.

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

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

   • 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 58:

     My thoughts are disturbed by a man and pooch trying to get off the front of the train. Despite hitting the door button, they refused to open.

3. (ditransitive) To withhold (something) from (someone); to not give it to them or to bar them from having it.
   • 1991 December 15, Saadia Everett, “Protest Beatings”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 22, page 4:

     If we bang or scream they will spray us with some pepper or something else that's in an aeresol 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.

4. (military) 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.
   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Refuse thy name.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs.

• (decline): decline, reject, nill, say no to, turn down, veto, withsake, withsay
• (decline a request or demand): say no, forbear

• offer one can't refuse

refuse

1. (obsolete) refusal
   • 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 Hatfield, for I Iaggard and M Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 13, page 215:

     This ſpoken, readie with a proud refuſe [...]

From re- +‎ fuse.

• enPR: rēfyo͞ozʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹiːˈfjuːz/
• Rhymes: -uːz

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.

• refusion

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.fyz/

• Audio:

  (file)

refuse

1. inflection of refuser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• férues

refuse

1. inflection of refusar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /reˈfuː.se/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /reˈfu.se/,

refūse

1. vocative masculine singular of refūsus

• “refuse”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press