rejects

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of reject.

   The committee rejects proposals that lack a clear budget.

   Her body rejects the transplanted tissue without immunosuppressant drugs.

   Note

   Every use of the verb takes a direct object: a committee rejects proposals, someone rejects a romantic advance, a defender rejects a shot. That last is a court-sports usage. A player who rejects a shot has blocked it, ideally sending the ball off the court, and has not merely refused it. Read without that context, the sentence sounds like a refusal.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of reject.

   Quality control pulled dozens of rejects off the assembly line today.

   The outlet ships rejects to discount chains rather than scrapping them.

   Note

   A plural that carries the noun's whole range: defective goods pulled from a production line, rejected takeoffs, or people. Used of people, it is derogatory slang, an insult rather than a description, so keep it for things in neutral writing. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb. A determiner before it (the rejects, these rejects) marks the noun.

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