refuse.
Discarded, rejected.
Meaning & usage
Discarded, rejected.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed into late Middle English from Middle French refusé, past participle of refuser (“to refuse”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”) likely due to the similar sounding Middle English warnen
Collectively, items or material that have been discarded; rubbish, garbage.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed into late Middle English from Middle French refusé, past participle of refuser (“to refuse”). Displaced native Middle English wernen (“to refuse”) likely due to the similar sounding Middle English warnen
To decline (a request or demand).
My request for a pay rise was refused.
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.
To withhold (something) from (someone); to not give it to them or to bar them from having it.
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
To disown.
Where this word comes from
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).
refusal
Where this word comes from
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).
To fuse again, as with, or after, heating or melting.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re-der. Old French re-bor. Middle English re- English re- English fuse English refuse From re- + fuse.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.