refusal
Pluralrefusals
- 1An act of declining something offered, requested, or demanded.
Their refusal to sign the contract delayed the entire project.
Repeated refusals from the committee left the proposal in limbo.
Similarrejection, denial, rebuff, veto
Oppositeacceptance, agreement, consent
Note
A noun built in Middle English from refuse plus the noun-making -al, the same pattern as arrival or denial. It most often takes a to-infinitive naming what was declined: a refusal to carry out duties, to sign, to comment. As a count noun it marks single occasions (repeated refusals). Uncountable, it names the stance itself, as in a policy of refusal.
- 2The depth or point at which drilling a well or borehole can no longer continue.
The drillers recorded refusal once the bit struck bedrock.
Refusal was reached at fifteen meters, well above the expected depth.
Note
Here it is the ground that does the refusing, a figurative stretch of the everyday act of declining. In drilling and pile driving, refusal is typically declared when penetration per blow or per rotation falls below a set threshold against hard strata. It usually takes no article: crews reach refusal, or record refusal at a given depth.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English refusell, equivalent to the verb 'refuse' combined with the suffix '-al'.