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

to refuse

18 9.6
To reject a transplanted organ when the body attacks it
  • verb
  • /rɪˈfjuz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : rechazar
  • The bedside clock stubbornly refused to advance its hands to a decent hour.

Examples

  • The body rejected the transplant because it refused to accept the foreign tissue.

  • Why did the patient refuse a much needed cardiac transplant?

  • The heart refuses to stabilize.

    Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

  • Luckily, my protective spells recognized the danger and refused all entrance to the animal.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Both participants and primary caretakers were assured of their right to refuse participation in the program without negative consequences.

    Academic text (2007)

  • For some reason, her vocal cords were refusing to obey the commands that she sent them.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • After the surgery, the doctor warned that the patient might refuse the new heart.

  • Some patients struggle when their bodies refuse to accept the donated organs.

Synonyms

to reject
vsto refuse
  • Specialized
38 7.7

Fail to accept a transplanted organ because the body attacks it

is the same action described specifically as an immune response

Antonyms

to accept
75 2.7

To be able to receive something, for example a cable or signal

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 Rejected

to refuse
  • Specialized
18 9.6
to tolerate
  • Specialized
31 4.5
to accept
75 2.7

Surface Forms

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

Etymology

Refuse when a body rejects a transplant keeps the picture of 'sending back'—the body does not accept the new organ and in a sense 'pushes it away'. That's why doctors say a patient can refuse a graft or organ.