to refuse

Examples

• All

• Anxiety invades him, straps him to the bed, and refuses to let go.

  Fiction book (1998)

• He refuses to let anyone photograph him, ever.

  #Roxy (2018)

• Those two things just refuse to die, right?

  Ear Biscuits

• And because of my background and how I was able to make my first money, I just refuse to forget about those guys, man.

• And we must together refuse to be worn down.

  10 Downing Street

• And we need to refuse to use those concepts.

• How can we in all honor and in all sense of security, refuse to resist that kind of behavior?

• The great leaders of history are always those who refuse to bend to naked kings.

• And one of the best ways that this plays out is that time when you hold steadfast and you refuse to bend.

• He refuses to acknowledge the mistakes he made during the project.

Synonyms

E

to elude

vsto refuse

83 5.8

To escape someone or fail to be understood

adds a sense of active opposition beyond mere escape from understanding

D

to defy

vsto refuse

54 5.5

Be impossible to explain or understand

includes that puzzling quality and adds active opposition

E

to evade

vsto refuse

31 3.9

To avoid doing something you should do, for example a duty or a direct question

is rather about baffling imperviousness than deliberate avoidance

R

to resist

vsto refuse

4 7.5

Be hard to explain or understand

covers that baffling imperviousness and also active opposition

Antonyms

Y

to yield

81 4.3

To stop resisting under pressure or force

Idioms

O

offer he couldn't refuse

• Informal

1 4.9

A deal so good a person cannot say no to

Compounds

R

refuse collector

• UK

1 3.1

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

R

refuse heap

4.5

A pile of rubbish left outside in one place

How Resistant

to resist

311 2.2

to refuse

4 9.2

Surface Forms

Etymology