# refuse

Pronunciation: say "ri-FYOOZ" US /ɹɪˈfjuz/, UK /ɹɪˈfjuːz/

## Verb

1. To say or show that one will not do, accept, or allow something; to decline a request, offer, or demand.
   - Simple: To say no to something, or to say you will not do it.
   - _The committee refused her request for a deadline extension._
   - _Many workers refuse requests to come in on their days off._
2. To withhold something from a person, such as entry, permission, or help, by not giving it to them or not letting them have it.
   - Simple: To not give someone something they want or need.
   - _The judge refused the defendant bail._
   - _Insurers sometimes refuse coverage to applicants with preexisting conditions._

## Noun

3. Items or material that have been discarded, considered collectively; trash or garbage. (pronounced: say "REF-yoos" /ˈɹɛfjuːs/)
   - Simple: Things that people have thrown away, like trash and garbage.
   - _Crews hauled tons of refuse from the flooded basements._
   - _The refuse collection schedule changes during holiday weeks._

## Adjective

Pronunciation: say "REF-yoos" /ˈɹɛfjuːs/

4. Discarded or rejected; cast off as unwanted or worthless.
   - Simple: Thrown away because no one wants it anymore.

## Verb

5. To refuse to acknowledge someone or something as one's own, and to cast it off. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To say that someone or something is no longer yours and turn away from it.

## Noun

6. An act of declining or denying a request; a refusal. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The act of saying no when someone asks for something.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To fuse once more; to join or blend again by means of, or after, heating or melting.
- (verb) To hold back or angle a section of a battle line, such as the center, a wing, or a flank, out of the regular alignment as troops prepare to engage the enemy.

## Origin

**Meanings 3–4** — Middle French refuser ('to refuse') had the past participle refusé, and late Middle English took the word over from that form.
**Meanings 1–2, 5–6** — Old French refuser, which became Middle English refusen, goes back to Vulgar Latin *refūsāre. That form is explained either as a blend of Classical Latin refūtāre (source of 'refute') and recūsāre (source of 'recuse') or as built on refūsus, the past participle of refundere.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/refuse (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).