refuse

English Online Dictionary. What means refuse‎? What does refuse mean?

English

Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

refuse (comparative more refuse, superlative most refuse)

1. Discarded, rejected.

Noun

refuse (uncountable)

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

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

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).

Pronunciation

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

Verb

refuse (third-person singular simple present refuses, present participle refusing, simple past and past participle refused)

1. (transitive) To decline (a request or demand).

2. (intransitive) To decline a request or demand, forbear; to withhold permission.
3. (ditransitive) To withhold (something) from (someone); to not give it to them or to bar them from having it.
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.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To disown.

Usage notes

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

Conjugation

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• offer one can't refuse

Related terms

Translations

Noun

refuse

1. (obsolete) refusal

Etymology 3

From re- +‎ fuse.

Pronunciation

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

Verb

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.

Conjugation

Related terms

• refusion

See also

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.fyz/

Verb

refuse

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

Anagrams

• férues

Galician

Verb

refuse

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

Latin

Pronunciation

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

Participle

refūse

1. vocative masculine singular of refūsus

References

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