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Glite Dictionary
🚫 To not accept 🙅 To say no 🩺 To reject tissue 🍌 Food waste ❓ To resist understanding
to refuse

to refuse

716 1.7
To say no to a request or offer
  • verb
  • /rɪˈfjuz/
translation icon : rechazar
  • And yet you still refuse to listen.
  • refuse the offer
  • refuse to let
  • refuse to allow

It's like I, I refuse to play that way.

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Examples

  • I refuse to allow Mrs. Mallory to travel until she and the child are out of danger.

    Stagecoach (1939)

  • She decided to refuse the job offer because it didn't align with her career goals.

  • It's like I, I refuse to play that way.

    Film Courage

  • No, no, because I I refuse to go down that path.

    Dr. Phil

  • But I am a professional and I refuse to let down my standards.

  • I refuse to play his game.

    Emmanuelle (2024)

  • And if he refuses that, you let him go.

    Stephan Speaks

  • And we need to refuse to use those concepts, refuse to use that language.

    andrew gold | heretics.

  • How do you educate people who refuse to learn?

    Philosophy Tube

  • Although relatives attempt to alert Laelia to the affair, she refuses to believe the worst of her husband.

    Academic text (2017)

Synonyms

to reject
vsto refuse
839 1.9

Refuse to accept someone or something

is the milder general act of saying no or refusing permission
to deny
vsto refuse
423 1.6

To refuse to let someone have something

is the wider action that also covers offers and permissions
to turn down
vsto refuse
312 2.9

Refuse an offer, invitation, or request

covers saying no and also not allowing or giving something
to decline
vsto refuse
272 3.4

To say no politely to an offer or invitation

is broader, including denying permission or withholding things
to withhold
vsto refuse
210 5.1

Refuse to give something someone wants or needs

is about saying no or not allowing rather than keeping things back
to turn away
vsto refuse
77 2.8

Refuse someone entry to a place or group

is the general act of saying no to offers, permissions, or giving
to disallow
vsto refuse
  • Formal
16 3.9

To refuse to allow something, usually by an official rule

is the everyday refusal that may not involve official rules
to nix
vsto refuse
  • Informal
15 8.0

To say no to an idea or plan

is more neutral and covers formal refusals and permission denial

Antonyms

to allow
∞ 1.0

To let something happen or let someone do something

to accept
793 1.0

To take something someone offers, for example a gift or invitation

Idioms

offer he couldn't refuse
  • Informal
1 4.9

A deal so good a person cannot say no to

Compounds

refuse collector
  • UK
1 3.1

A person who collects and takes away rubbish from homes and businesses

refuse heap
4.5

A pile of rubbish left outside in one place

How Firm

to deny
423 1.6
to reject
839 1.9
to refuse
716 1.7
to turn down
312 2.9
to decline
272 3.4

Surface Forms

refuse infinitive
refused past
refused past participle
refusing present participle
refuses third person singular

Etymology

Refuse comes from old parts like re- 'back' and a root that meant 'send away', so the original idea was to 'send back' an offer. That's why to refuse someone is to push an offer away and say no.